Congress's complaint to EC is a desperate attempt: Akali Dal

Chandigarh, April 10 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had urged the Election Commission to suspend the organisational elections of the party on the directions of “his bosses Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge in league with the rebel Akali faction”.

Senior Akali Dal leader Daljit Singh Cheema said Randhawa’s complaint to the Election Commission (EC) was a desperate attempt to prevent SAD from coming back in the field.

“Earlier, the rebel group had aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) damaged the SAD. Now it has even joined hands with the Congress. While it exposes the rebel group thoroughly, it also makes it clear that all the parties in the fray are afraid of SAD,” he told the media here.

Asserting that SAD had been constantly asserting that the rebel group had been trying to link the party’s membership drive with religion and get it derecognised, Cheema said that the linkup between the rebel group and Sukhjinder Randhawa has proved this.

He also asked the Congress top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge, to come out in the open to fight with SAD instead of indulging in cloak-and-dagger activities by presenting partisan leaders like Randhawa as ‘whistle blowers’ to the Election Commission.

Cheema also chided Randhawa for requesting his complaint be kept secret but simultaneously giving interviews to the media on it.

He said as far as the complaint of holding the election in the Teja Singh Samundri Hall was concerned, the fact of the matter was that the hall was part of the administrative block of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and it was a tradition to hold the election of the SAD president in the hall.

“SAD has also taken permission to hold the meeting in the hall in advance,” the Akali leader added.

Cheema made it clear that such desperate and politically motivated attempts to sabotage the organisation's elections of SAD would not succeed.

“The delegate session will elect the new President of the party on April 12, which will be followed by a massive political conference on April 13,” he added.

--IANS

vg/dan