Singla blames Modi govt for Gurdaspur defeat

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 15

SAD leader and former CPS Sarup Chand Singla today claimed that SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal was not defeated in the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll while it was the defeat of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government’s ‘anti-people’ policies.

The former CPS expressed his views at a press conference organised at Jeet palace.

He said the BJP should take a lesson from this defeat and should check its policies.

Singla said GST had hit the traders hard and economic burden on common man had also increased.

The SAD leader said GST was proving to be a major crisis for the people as they were confused. “After its imposition, everything in the market has got costlier and it has created fear among traders,” he said.

The condition has become so worse that some traders are on the verge of closing their business, he added.

Singla said the resentment among traders was the reason for the loss of the alliance candidate in Gurdaspur.

People did not vote for the Congress but they voted against BJP because of GST, Singla said.

Sarup Singla said that if BJP did not take any corrective measure to improve its policies, then it would have to face same results in future as well.

Singla is known to be a leader who has always maintained distance from controversies and has never spoken in such manner against his alliance party.

It seems that Singla’s difference with local BJP leaders has led to such outburst.

Singla said the Diwali festival going on in the city was illegal and demanded a probe into it.

Mediapersons also questioned that the SAD-BJP alliance was ruling in the MCB but why no action was initiated in this regard.

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath, who was sitting beside Singla, said the festival was organised without any permission from the MCB.

“We will issue notice to the organisers asking them why they have not taken permission from the MCB,” he said.

‘Economic burden on common man’ 

• The former CPS expressed his views at a press conference organised at Jeet Palace. 
• He said the BJP should learn a lesson from the defeat and check its policies.
• Singla said the GST had hit the traders hard and economic burden on the common man had also increased.
• The SAD leader said GST was proving to be a major crisis for the people as they were confused. “After its imposition, everything in the market has become costlier and it has created a fear among the traders,” Singla said.