Bhagwant Mann, Aman Arora were conspicuous by their absence



TALWANDI SABO: A day ahead of Baisakhi, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) renewed its pledge to fight against drug peddling, unemployment and corruption in Punjab. The entire party leadership, minus the AAP MPs, got together on Friday at Talwandi Sabo town of Bathinda and took a vow at Takht Damdama Sahib—one of the five temporal seats of Sikhs—to come out stronger in their fight against ills and get Punjab free from various mafias.

Having faced heat over AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal tendering unconditional apology to former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia over the accusations of drug trade, the party on Friday rallied behind Sukhpal Singh Khaira—leader of the Opposition—to take forward their fight against the Congress government and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

The Congress and the SAD will hold their political conferences at Talwandi Sabo on Saturday. The SAD ( Amritsar ) along with Sikh organisations and Sarbat Khalsa-appointed jathedars will also congregate on the occasion at Talwandi Sabo. Apart from Khaira, a dozen MLAs, including Baljinder Kaur, Rupinder Kaur Ruby, Jagdev Singh Kamalu, Nazar Singh Mansahisa, Budh Ram, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Kulwant Singh Pandori, Pirmal Singh Khalsa, Kanwar Sandhu, Kultar Sandhwan, Harpal Singh Cheema, Jai Kishan Rori and party’s Punjab unit vice-president Balbir Singh attended the function. Punjab AAP president Bhagwant Mann and copresident Aman Arora were conspicuous by their absence.

“We have decided against holding political conferences on religious occasions. Rather we decided to serve the humanity by organizing a medical checkup camp and served water. We have renewed our pledge to fight against corrupt practices adopted earlier by the SAD and now by the Congress to fill their coffers. The party has decided to hold protests over people-centric issues and to remind the Congress government the promises it made to the people,” said Khaira. Talwandi Sabo MLA Baljinder and Balbir said by vowing at the place associated with 10th Sikh master Guru Gobind Singh they had decided to restart their mission of going among the people to fight for their causes on the solemn occasion.

Khaira raised his demand that action be taken against Majithia after the special task force (STF) mentioned his role in its report submitted to the Punjab and Haryana high court. He also sought action against the DGPs against whom DGP (HRD) Sidharth Chattopadhaya had leveled accusations of involvement in drug peddling in the high court.

