BJP fumes as Akalis go solo for publicity

JALANDHAR: Upset over the SAD solely taking mileage in the publicity material being put up across Punjab, including new wall paintings, bus posters, advertising boards and booklets, the state BJP leaders will be raising the matter in the core committee meeting of the party to be held tomorrow in Chandigarh.

The SAD’s promotional message painted on a wall along the Jalandhar-Amritsar highway. Tribune Photo: Malkiat Singh

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 25

Upset over the SAD solely taking mileage in the publicity material being put up across Punjab, including new wall paintings, bus posters, advertising boards and booklets, the state BJP leaders will be raising the matter in the core committee meeting of the party to be held tomorrow in Chandigarh.

The newly appointed BJP election incharge Narendra Singh Tomar and co-incharge Capt Abhimanyu will be chairing the meeting for the first time.

The new line adopted by BJP state president Vijay Sampla that it will be the Prime Minister who will take credit for Centre’s works and the Chief Minister for Punjab has not gone down well with party leaders. Cabinet minister and BJP’s legislative party leader Bhagat Chunni Lal said, “We partly agree with what Sampla has said but the BJP being an alliance partner should get its due share in publicity. We will raise the point in the core committee meeting.”

“The party leadership has been saying that it’s a non-issue since the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister are from SAD and are bound to get publicity, but the BJP too should not have been sidelined, especially in the booklets,” said an former minister of the BJP.

Govt scraps wall painting plan

Even as the Public Relations Department had earlier issued a tender notice for wall paintings highlighting government achievements, it has been scrapped now. However, SAD has gone ahead with publicity and painted walls of all flyovers with a series of 40X10 feet promotional messages.

Rahul Tewari, Secretary, Information and Public Relations, had on September 23 issued directions to the Deputy Commissioners to look for space for wall paintings in government schools, overhead water tanks, panchayat ghars and other government buildings and revert within a week. As the administration had begun preparing the lists, the department had called for tenders. “We got just one applicant. We are not going for re-tendering and have called off this work,” said Director Public Relations Senu Duggal.