‘Opposition in Punjab dead’, says Akali Dal on Congress backing AAP

Chandigarh, July 17

Saying the official Opposition in Punjab is dead, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikam Singh Majithia on Monday dubbed the AAP-Congress collusion as “an unholy wedlock” in which both parties have treated Punjab as a “bargaining dowry-chip to seal an immoral deal”.

Majithia called upon the Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, to announce a reallocation of seats and shift the Congress legislators to treasury benches.

“The official Opposition in Punjab is dead. It is no longer Opposition; it is all official now. The Congress is now officially a faction of the ruling party.”

The Akali leader said the two parties struck a quid pro quo in which Punjab has been sacrificed at the altar of the games which they play at the national stage.

“SAD has been saying all along that these two parties have been playing intrigues with the people of Punjab in a conspiracy to keep the true representatives and the Khalsa Panth away from their legitimate right to serve the people of the state. With their brazen announcement of collusion, the cat is finally and decisively out of the bag.”

Majithia termed the virtual merger of the two anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh parties as “the great betrayal” of the people by the two parties.

“The Congress and AAP had enacted the drama of opposing each other in the assembly poll merely in their shared hatred of SAD,” he said.

The former Akali minister said there was nothing new in the coming together of these parties as they had done so earlier in Delhi also.