Bagga quits SAD, to fight elections as Independent

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 14

President of the Akali Dal, Ludhiana Urban 1, and president of the Traders Wing (Malwa Zone) Madan Lal Bagga today resigned from the party and announced that he would contest the Assembly elections as an Independent from the Ludhiana-North constituency. The SAD-BJP alliance has fielded Parveen Bansal from the seat.

Bagga was accompanied by many Akali Dal leaders when he made this announcement.

A formal announcement was made by Bagga at Amar Palace, Jalandhar bypass chowk. He said he had been associated with the Akali Dal for more than 10 years and he was promised that the Ludhiana-North seat would be allocated to the SAD (after consultation with the BJP) but it didn’t happen. He was disheartened as he had done so much for the constituency.

He said the “fatwa” by big-wigs (of the SAD/BJP) was not acceptable to him and he wanted to quit. He would contest the elections independently.

Meanwhile, president of the local unit of the Youth Akali Dal Gurdeep Singh Gosha termed Bagga as an opportunist.