As the ruling Congress party and the Shiromani Akali Dal engaged in a ‘game of rallies’ with both announcing to hold ‘a show of strength’ in each other’s ‘home-ground’, Punjab’s former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday reminded his successor Capt Amarinder Singh that Lambi is “ your own constituency”.

“You had contested from Lambi, and even though it banished you, it is still in some way your constituency because you had made promises to the people here,” said Badal, a day after Chief Minister Capt Amarinder had announced to hold a rally ion Badal’s bastion, Lambi.

“Please come with armfuls of gifts for the people here in the form of promises fulfilled, and I will personally welcome you,” said Badal.

Akali patriarch said: “I am glad that our rally has forced you to think of the people and to come out of your pleasure dome, though this is an expensive for us to help the people of Punjab to see the face of their Chief Minister.

It seems we will have to hold a rally every time we want the Chief Minister to come out to serve the people.”

Badal said that he was glad that Captain Singh will come and meet the people of Lambi whom Captain Singh had declared “as his own”, though he never showed his face here after the campaign was over.

“He had completely forgotten Lambi after making tall promises during the campaign. However, that is a small issue and I do not intend to let it come in the way of my welcoming you. Please come here after duly fulfilling all the promises you had made to the people — or at least the major ones among those like total farm waiver, jobs for each house, Rs 51,000 as Shagun scheme amount, and Rs 2,500 as old age pension, among others,” said Badal.

He added, “If you are gracious enough to do that, I will personally roll out a red carpet for you when you visit us because even I am a voter in the constituency which you had forgotten all this time.”

Badal said that if the Chief Minister came to Lambi after fulfilling most of the major promises he had made to the people, he would not only welcome him personally but would also lay out a langar for all the guests and all the Congress workers who accompany him for the rally. “I hope the Chief Minister accepts my hospitality,” said Badal.

APPREHENSION OF LAW & ORDER IN FARIDKOT RALLY WAS CONG LEADERS’ CONCOCTION: SAD

Lambasting at Punjab Government for raising objections over organising SAD’s rally at Faridkot, the Akali Dal on Monday said that Sunday’s “peaceful rally” clearly demonstrated that the apprehensions of breach of law and order situation was not hinged on the intelligence reports but “a figment of imagination and concoction of Congress leaders’ mind” as they were dead scared of the success of the rally.

“Congress leaders and their hardliner protégés were out to disrupt the rally and attempted to create problems, but the dedicated and disciplined SAD cadre kept their cool even in extreme provocation. It is amply crystal clear those who protested or tried to obstruct the rally were all Congressmen or its stooges in the garb of fundamentalists,” alleged SAD senior vice-president Mahesh Inder Singh Grewal.