Punjab polls 2022: Sukhbir Singh Badal names Virsa Singh Valtoha as SAD candidate from Khemkaran

By PTI
AMARKOT: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday announced the candidature of former chief parliamentary secretary Virsa Singh Valtoha from the Khemkaran constituency for the 2022 Punjab assembly polls.

The announcement came a day after Badal had said that he would contest from Jalalabad constituency.

The polls are due early next year.

The Shiromani Akali Dal president was addressing a gathering on the occasion of the second ‘Punjab Mange Jawab’ (Punjab seeks answer) rally held here.

Attacking the chief minister for presiding over the “worst” administration in the history of the state, the SAD president asked Amarinder Singh to tell Punjabis why he allegedly defrauded them with “false” promises.ALSO READ | SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal to contest Punjab Assembly polls 2022 from Jalalabad​

Badal said the chief minister will have to tell people why he swore a “false” oath in the name of the holy Gutka Sahib (religious book) that he would waive all loans of farmers after forming the government in the state.

“Punjabis want answers for the alleged fraud committed on them by the chief minister who while promising jobs to the youth also got forms signed from them and issued affidavits promising the same,” he said.

Badal asked the chief minister to reveal “one thing” that he had done for the people and the state in the last four years.

“Tell us one road, power grid or college you have made,” he said, adding that the situation was such that even the holy city of Amritsar was falling in disrepair and the Virasat-e-Marg was not being maintained.

Similarly, the promised compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre to farmers ploughing land beyond the barbed wire fence was not honoured, he claimed.

Badal praised Akali leader Valtoha for keeping the party flag flying in the constituency despite “extreme repression unleashed by Congress legislator Sukhhpal Bhullar”.

Former minister and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the people of Khemkaran had given a befitting answer to Bhullar who had threatened to lodge cases against people attending the rally.

Majithia alleged that the Congress-led government was burdening the people with fresh taxes.

He said the prices of petroleum products in Punjab were among the highest in the country because of the “huge” value added tax imposed on them by the state government.