Taking on Congress candidate from Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency Amarinder Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today questioned him about the works done by the UPA government in Punjab.
Attacking Singh, who was today locked in a war of words with his BJP rival Arun Jaitley, Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia and other SAD leaders asked the former Chief Minister "what his party MPs and UPA government did for Punjab in the last 10 years."
"Which project his party MPs and minister from Punjab brought for the state under the 10 years of UPA rule?" said the leaders of SAD, a key ally of BJP.
"It is an irony that except one FM channel, no project of development was brought to Punjab by Congress MPs and Ministers in UPA," the statement alleged.
"After the last hustings in 2009, Congress had eight MPs and four ministers from Punjab in UPA's Manmohan Singh's Cabinet.
"The Congress MPs remained mute spectators and did not raise their voice to protect the state's interests. Tell us which issue they raised and which development project they helped to bring for Punjab," SAD said.
They asked "why people should vote for Amarinder when his party's government in Centre had done nothing for the border area and for industries in Punjab and rather gave incentive to industries in neighbouring states which led to flight of industries from Punjab."
"Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal kept meeting the Central Cabinet ministers with the request of sanctioning development projects, but Congress ministers were enjoying the powers doing nothing for people." the statement said.
"During his own government in Punjab, Captain scrapped the free power to farmers, schemes for poor were taken back and recruitment for government jobs was banned. Now what agenda you have brought for the people of Amritsar," it said.
Besides Majithia, who is the brother-in-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, other leaders whose names were mentioned in the statement were Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Inderbir Singh Bolaria and Amritsar District Planning Board Chairman Vir Singh Lopoke.
Amritsar will go to polls on April 30.
