CHANDIGARH: The Akali Dal (A) chief, Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann, last week urged his Dal (B) counterpart Mr. Parkash Singh Badal, to forge Panthic unity to defeat the Congress party in the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Punjab.
In what he called a “last ditch appeal” to Mr. Badal, Mr, Mann said that the two factions must come together at least in Tam Taran and Ludhiana constituencies where the Congress party had decided to put up Mr. Surinder Singh Kairon and Mrs. Jaswant Kaur. respectively. “Both these candidates,” Mr, Mann claimed, “represented the worst Punjab has had to go through in the past. Mr, Surinder Singh Kairon, who as the Chief Minister had put 64,000 Sikhs in jail during the Punjabi Suba agitation before agreeing to barter away Punjab’s rights on over waters. Mrs. Jaswant Kaur is the wife of the late Beant Singh who as the Chief Minister was responsible for the jailing, death and tonuring, of nearly 40.000 Sikhs.” ‘To ensure that they were defeated, Mr. Mann said, he was willing to meet Mr. Badal anywhere,
Mr, Mann also indicated that he too was toying with the idea of contesting the Lok Sabha poll. “It at depends on if the situation develops in the next couple of days.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 3, 1996
