CHANDIGARH: SAD leader-turned-rebel Kulwant Singh’s triumph in the first-ever mayoral polls in Mohali on Friday, with open support from a chief parliamentary secretary (CPS) of the ruling party, has added to the brewing dissent against the SAD-BJP Government in Punjab.
Factionalism in the SAD’s Mohali unit had come to the fore when CPS N K Sharma took on local leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia. Sharma also backed Kulwant Singh, who broke away from the SAD after losing the 2014 general elections and is now leading a rebel outfit called Azad Group that is in alliance with the Congress.
SAD leaders Inderbir Singh Bolaria and MLA Pargat Singh, too, have taken on their own government. BJP leader and CPS Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of former MP from Amritsar and cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, has been raising the banner of revolt against the SAD-BJP Government for allegedly neglecting development issues in her constituency. Earlier this month, Bolaria sat on a dharna in protest against the setting up of a solid waste management plant at Bhagtanwala. He demanded `100 crore for development work. Pargat Singh, a SAD MLA from Jalandhar, objected to a solid waste management project proposed at Jamsher village.
Former CM Captain Amarinder Singh said the government said: “Now, it’s not Congress leaders who are levelling allegations, even the Akali MLAs have started staging dharnas against their government,” he said.