Kamal Ghorui
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said every political party has the right to take its own decision on alliances, reacting to the Bharatiya Janata Party announcement that it will contest the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections on its own.Speaking in Ludhiana, Badal said his party had also fought the 2024 parliamentary elections independently.“For us, the interests of Punjab and Punjabis are supreme, sovereign and above everything else,” he said.His remarks came hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the BJP would contest the 2027 assembly polls alone.Badal said the SAD would continue to fight for the rights of Punjab and its people and expressed confidence that the party would secure a landslide victory in the next state election.He also said the SAD was different from what he described as Delhi-based parties that seek power in the state.“Earlier, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal was given many allurements, but he chose to remain in jail for 16 years rather than compromise the rights of the state. I will also continue to fight for the rights of Punjab.“I have full faith in the wisdom of Punjabis who realise they have been repeatedly betrayed at the hands of the parties of Delhi. I am confident they will hand 100 seats to the SAD in the forthcoming assembly elections,” he said.Addressing a gathering earlier, Badal questioned whether national leaders could match the regional party’s commitment to the state.“Can Amit Shah (home minister) or Modi ji have the same concern for you as the Badal family or the SAD?”He also alleged that Punjabis were abandoned during last year’s floods, accusing the state government led by the Aam Aadmi Party as well as the Centre of failing to support affected residents.“Many leaders left the party thinking it’s finished. Now the same leaders are coming back and virtually breaking down my doors to seek readmission. But my question to them is, why did you leave? People who do change with the wind cannot be trusted,” he said.Badal further claimed that a future SAD government would take strong measures against crime and narcotics in the state.“We will bring in legislation to deny bail to gangsters and drug lords and seize their complete properties,” he said.He also said the party would take strict action against industrial pollution in Punjab’s rivers.“I will not let one drop of industrial or sewerage effluent enter the Sutlej and Beas rivers. The violators will be dealt with sternly. This is absolutely essential to tackle the scourge of cancer in the Malwa belt.”Badal added that the SAD would not allow water to flow into the Rajasthan canal once it comes to power, blaming the Indian National Congress for handing Punjab’s waters to Rajasthan.He said he was committed to correcting what he described as a “historic injustice.”
