CHANDIGARH: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu today launched a veiled attack on NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal for tying up with Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana to fight against BJP candidates.
"Our allies hug us in Punjab, but in Haryana, they are wrestling with us (against BJP), which is unethical...," Sidhu said at an election rally at Dabwali in Sirsa district in favour of BJP candidate Dev Kumar Sharma.
Sidhu, who had been vocal against Akali Dal leadership when he was an MP from Amritsar, used the occasion to launch a veiled attack on them.
"They support a person who claims that he will take oath from jail...how can they (Akalis) support convicts who have been jailed," Sidhu said in an apparent reference to the SAD fighting October 15 Haryana assembly polls in alliance with the INLD.
INLD President and former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, who is out on bail on health grounds in a teachers recruitment scam case, had a fortnight back said he would take oath as the next Chief Minister from Tihar jail.
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has campaigned for INLD in Haryana and even shared stage with O P Chautala in Jind on September 25. SAD President and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal also began a hectic poll campaign from Sirsa today to seek votes for the INLD-SAD candidates.
BJP, an erstwhile ally of the INLD, is for the first time in Haryana's history contesting on all the 90 assembly seats on its own.
"We respect elders...but not those like our allies who are campaigning for corrupt and jailed politicians," Sidhu said in an apparent reference to Badal Sr, who has campaigned for INLD in Haryana ahead of the polls.
Sidhu used his famous 'Sidhuisms' to hit out at Congress also, and borrowing lines from a popular Bollywood song, said: "Congress toh munni se bhi zyaada badnaam hai".
He targeted Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, claiming that he has taken the state backward and mocked at his claims of making 'Haryana No 1' in terms of development.
Seeking votes for BJP to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister, he said Narendra Modi is the answer to take the country forward.
"Ek hi chaand Modi jaisa kaafi hai roshni ke liye, hazaaron taaron se kuchh nahi hoga (a shining moon like Modi is enough to remove darkness, a thousand stars can do no wonder)". .