Akali Dal to Announce Candidates After Poll Dates Announced, Says Sukhbir Badal

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said the party will announce names of its candidates for the Lok Sabha polls after the election schedule is notified.

Out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats, the SAD usually contests on 10 seats while its ally the BJP field its nominees on three seats.

"After the election dates are announced, we will decide about the candidates," Badal told reporters here.

He said the party's election manifesto committee, headed by MP Balwinder Singh Bhundar, would come out with a mission statement for the upcoming polls.

"We will talk about the performance of the central government, Punjab government and previous SAD-BJP government in the state," Badal said.

"The central government gave road projects worth Rs 40,000 crore and Rs 3,000 crore of irrigation projects to the state. Besides, Kartarpur corridor has been approved which had been the main demand of Sikhs," the SAD chief said.

He claimed that he has already covered 25 assembly constituencies wherein he held one-on-one meetings with residents to understand their issues. Badal accused the Congress government in the state of not fulfilling its poll promises.

"I want to know on which issue, the Congress will go to people to seek votes. That is why chief minister Amarinder Singh and Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar are shying away from going to meet people ahead of the polls," Badal said.

To a question on any seat swapping with the BJP, he said the party will soon have a meeting with its ally.

"We will see who has the best chance to win from which seat and which party has the strongest candidate," he said. Meanwhile, the Akali Dal Tuesday presented two families of Abohar who alleged that false cases had been registered against them at the behest of Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar for not supporting his party.

The families of Mohinder Bathla and Satish Satija alleged that false cases were being registered against them solely because they had supported a BJP candidate from Abohar constituency in the 2017 assembly elections.

The SAD president said the party would approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court demanding an inquiry into the matter.