AAP following footsteps of Cong by interfering in Sikh religious affairs by trying to prevent SAD from contesting the DSGMC elections – SAD

(Dr Daljit Singh Cheema also announces party will initiate criminal action against the polling agency which had partnered with AAP to present a bogus survey for 2022 elections)

(Also condemns CM for not even unpacking 250 ventilators sent by centre to treat Covid patients)

Chandigarh, March 20 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was following in the footsteps of the Congress party by directly interfering in the religious affairs of the Sikh community by trying to prevent the SAD from contesting the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections.

It also announced it would initiate criminal action against the polling agency which had entered into a conspiracy with AAP to come out with a bogus survey for the 2022 assembly elections.

Addressing a press conference here, former minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the AAP Delhi government had become desperate and joined hands with anti-panthic groups to prevent the SAD from contesting the forthcoming DSGMC elections. He said the level of frustration was such that Delhi’s Gurdwara Election minister Rajinder Pal Gautam had written to the Principal Secretary, Gurdwara Election department to demand strict compliance of certain amended rules which had been brought into being by the erstwhile Congress government. “These rules seek to prevent allocation of the ‘balti’ symbol reserved for the SAD despite the fact that this issue was settled by the Election Commission of India in 2008”.

Asserting that this was done because AAP was afraid that the SAD would sweep the DSGMC elections, Dr Cheema said the ‘sangat’ was with the party because of the ‘langar sewa’ it had done during the period of Covid, creation of a hospital for free dialysis treatment and legal help offered to Sikh youth who had been targeted for repression by both the BJP led central government and the AAP government. “I want to tell Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal that others also tried to interfere in the religious affairs of the Sikhs but did not succeed. Nor will you”.

When questioned about the fake survey prepared by the C Voter polling agency in conjunction with AAP, the SAD leader said earlier also the same company had come out with the fraudulent survey giving AAP 100 seats in the 2017 assembly election. “The survey was misused by AAP with posters of the fake survey being posted across the State. Now again a fake survey giving AAP a clear majority with 59 to 67 seats has been prepared by the same agency. Such surveys have no credibility. AAP won only 20 assembly seats in the last election against a projected hundred. This time its position is worse with the party winning only nine seats in the municipal corporation elections and failing to win a single seat in Abohar, Bathinda, Kapurthala and Mohali. The SAD emerged as the number two party in the Corporation elections despite widespread irregularities by the ruling Congress party. Still AAP is being projected to secure a majority in the forthcoming elections”, he said asking what had changed in twenty days to make the polling agency arrive at this analysis.

Dr Cheema said “we are committed to stopping this trend which is against democratic norms and traditions. We have contacted legal experts and have decided to explore all legal options. The party could go in for registration of a criminal case against the polling agency as well as file a suit for damages besides other action”.

The SAD also condemned chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh for spending crores on advertisements about steps taken to control Covid, when recent reports had revealed that the State government had not even unpacked 250 ventilators received from the centre for treatment of Covid patients. He said it was shocking that when the State mortality figure of three per cent was the most in the country with most deaths occurring due to breathing problems, the State government had not even thought it fit to install the ventilators received by it. Dr Cheema also lambasted the chief minister for failing to regulate the functioning of private hospitals with reports indicating that 69 per cent of the hospitals had not administered a single dose of vaccination.

The SAD leader also asked the chief minister to take necessary steps to control Covid but also ensure the livelihood of the poor and middle class was not affected. He said an independent survey had revealed that the number of poor had doubled from six crore to thirteen crore during the period of Covid. “We must take steps to give relief to the poor including reducing power tariff as well as VAT on petrol and diesel”, Dr Cheema added