Former MLA Bansal quits Akali Dal, blames govt for unrest

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Mansa, October 20

Taking a serious note of the unrest across the state following sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib, former MLA from Mansa Mangat Rai Bansal today quit the SAD.

He said he had sent his resignation to Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal citing the reason that the state government “was not making any earnest efforts to tackle the situation in the state”.

Bansal, who was the chairperson of the District Planning Committee for two years, held the political system responsible and stated that “if the government had wished, the culprits behind Bargari incident could have been caught and innocent youth wouldn’t have died in police firing”.

He said the CM should have called an all-party meeting to seek a solution to the unrest but instead of doing so, “the SAD and all the other parties started using the unrest for their political motives”. Bansal was an MLA from Budhlada during the Capt Aamrinder Singh regime. He contested for Maur Mandi seat in 2012 on the Congress ticket but lost following which he joined the SAD and was made the chairman of the District Planning Committee for two years.