Navjot Sidhu's 'Awaaz-e-Punjab' was a brainchild of 'fugitive' leaders: Badal
MUKTSAR (Punjab): Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday described 'Awaaz-e-Punjab' as "a pack of disgruntled and opportunist political leaders" and "without any ideological commitment", and claimed it will hardly have any impact on the state politics.
Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu , former Indian hockey captain and Olympian Pargat Singh along with two Ludhiana MLA brothers' Balwinder Bains and Simrajit Singh Bains have decided to float their own political outfit 'Awaaz-e-Punjab' "aimed to save Punjab".
Badal clamied while the front was a brainchild of "fugitive" leaders who want to "satiate their lust for power", the SAD-BJP alliance has been "dedicatedly serving the people since last many decades".
Taking a jibe on 'Awaaz-e-Punjab', he said many more such "mushrooms would crop up" in the state in the forthcoming poll season but people would extend their support only to the alliance.
Sidhu will speak to media on September 8 to share his future course of action, the former Rajya Sabha MP's wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu said.
Reacting to the proposed front, Badal said, "Rather than being another front in political arena this will hardly have any impact on state polity."
Addressing the people during Sangat Darshan programme in Lambi assembly segment, he said the people have time and again reposed faith in "pro-people and development oriented policies of SAD-BJP alliance committed for giving fillip to overall development of the state".
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal on Friday said the formation of a new front in Punjab "symbolizes utter confusion in the Opposition ranks" because of the "success of SAD's constructive three-fold agenda of development, social welfare and governance".
"If anything, the formation of the new front is a rebuff to those like Captain Amaridner Singh and AAP who were bending over backwards to beg support of political castaways. It is also one more example of how the entire Opposition in Punjab is nothing more than a conglomerate of disparate elements brought together by nothing more than pre-election opportunism," General Secretary and spokesperson, SAD, Harcharan Singh Bains said in a statement here.
"The SAD is completely unconcerned about the goings' on in the Opposition ranks. It will go to the people with its three-fold agenda being articulated and implemented by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy Chief Minister and SAD president Sukhbir Badal," he said.
"The integrated vision of grass-root development and social welfare on the one hand and futuristic economic and infrastructure model has decisively put Punjab on a trajectory of modernistic development which the other states have not even started to think about yet," he added.