BJP leaders leave protest midway, Akalis fume

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, June 18

In a major embarrassment for the district leadership of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), all senior district BJP leaders today left a joint protest midway, which was held outside the Deputy Commissioner (DC) office.

The protest was organised against the Punjab Government, demanding supply of ration to blue card holders and action against land, sand and liquor mafia.

“SAD leaders had sought our support to organise a joint protest in front of Sangrur DC office. However, the Akalis made the protest SAD-centric and tried to insult our leaders by not giving them their due importance and respect, which is why we left the protest midway,” said Randeep Singh Deol, district BJP president.

After Deol and his team left the protest in full public view, all SAD leaders went after them trying to convince them to join the protest.

“We have conveyed to them that we will not tolerate such behavior from them in future. Since we have an alliance with SAD, we expect equal respect from them. We had decided to submit a memorandum of demands separately, however after the SAD leaders promised us they will give due respect to our workers in future, we relented and submitted a joint memorandum to the DC,” said Deol.

“Some misunderstanding had cropped up, but we cleared it out with the BJP leaders. We had given them full respect during the protest and two of their leaders also addressed the protest,” said Iqbal Singh Jhunda, district SAD president.