Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said the wind of change had started in Punjab and that Punjabis were getting ready to uproot the ‘jhadoo’, ‘khooni panja’ and ‘kamal da phul’ from the State.

He was addressing people in the Punjab Bachao Yatra tour in Rampura Phul and Maur constituencies and was accompanied by Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal besides Sikander Singh Maluka and Harinder Singh Mehraj in Maur and Rampura Phul respectively.

Thanking the people for the response to the Yatra across the State, Badal said “now the contest has become one of Punjab di fauj – the SAD against the Delhi based parties”. Urging the people to stay steadfast in their resolve to support their own regional party, he said “if you do not do this future generations will not forgive you”.

 Stating that the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had taken Punjab back by decades during the last seven years, the SAD president said “the erstwhile Congress government befooled farmers with false oaths of complete loan waiver”. He said AAP had promised to eradicate drugs within days but the scourge of drugs had increased manifold during the last two years with hundreds of youth dying of drug overdose deaths. He also cited how AAP had bankrupted Punjab by taking on a debt of Rs one lakh crore in the last two years even as no development or infrastructure creation had taken place in the State.

Asserting that the farmers and the poor had been hardest hit, Badal said “this government not only failed to implement its promise to ensure minimum support price (MSP) on all crops, but has even failed to release compensation for crop losses”. He said similarly the poor were being denied social welfare benefits like aata-daal and shagun.

Appealing to the people to give a decisive mandate, Badal said “the SAD alone represents your interests and your aspirations. We are committed to safeguarding the interests of Punjab. For us Punjab is first”. He said for Delhi based parties, power was most important due to which they had consistently compromised the interests of the State.