SAD leader Makkar''s function sees poor attendance

Deepkamal Kaur

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Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, November 24

A function organised by new Shiromani Akali Dal candidate from Jalandhar Cantonment Sarabjeet Makkar at Sofi village on Thursday failed to attract enough supporters, as several prominent party leaders chose to stay away over allegations of land grabbing against the leader.      

Makkar, a controversial leader who was formerly Member of Legislative Assembly, organised the function — the first since the party’s Jalandhar Cantonment lawmaker Pargat Singh resigned — to lay the foundation stone of an ITI in the village that is the hometown of BJP state president Vijay Sampla. Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Technical Education and Industrial Training Minister Madan Mohan Lal attended the function, but prominent Akali leaders had already announced they were boycotting the event and had even threatened to prop up an independent candidate from the constituency.

Akali leaders have accused Makkar of having been involved in land grabbing in the area, a charge the leader denies.

Sparse attendance forced Makkar and Sampla to bring 400 students from a government school and an ITI nearby, but even that failed to make up for missing the numbers.  Both leaders however justified the poor attendance by saying they held the event at “very short notice”.

In what is being considered an attempt to avoid questions over the allegations, Badal called Makkar a “hardworking and daring leader”.

Formerly an MLA from of Adampur, Makkar had unsuccessfully contested from Kapurthala in the last elections.

Meanwhile, in another development, Gurjeet Sanghera, the estranged son of former Congress minister Avtar Henry, joined the Akali Dal at the function.

Punjab will hold assembly elections early next year.