SAD to announce candidates within 2 weeks'' time

Chandigarh, October 24

The Shiromani Akali Dal will announce its candidates for the 2017 Assembly elections within two weeks, party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Monday.

After welcoming the Congress leader Seth Satpal Mall into the party fold, Badal said the SAD has already conveyed to its probable candidates and the official announcement would also be made soon.

Replying to a question VAT rationalization that AAP has promised in its industry manifesto unveiled on Sunday, Badal said Kejriwal should "stop fooling people by releasing visionless manifestos".

"Everyone knows that GST is all set to replace the VAT across the nation from the next financial year but Kejriwal is talking about VAT, which shows his (lack of) common understanding about the issues pertaining to society," he said.

Describing Congress as "a sinking ship", Punjab’s deputy chief minister claimed that more Congress leaders would join SAD in the coming days as they were feeling "stifled" in Congress due to "factionalism".

Satpal Mall joined SAD with his many supporters at his residence in Buta Mandi in Jalandhar.

Mall belongs to a family of Congress supporters and is considered an influential leader in the Doaba region.

Before quitting Congress, he was the deputy general secretary of Punjab Pradesh Congress.

Committing to work with full zeal and strength to ensure the record victory of SAD-BJP in the Assembly elections, Satpal said he and thousands of his supporters would guarantee record margin victory of SAD-BJP candidates. — PTI