MUKTSAR – Under fire for various reasons, especially after the killing of two Sikh activists who were protesting the sacrilege incidents in Faridkot district last month, the ruling Badal family has adopted a fresh strategy to deal with the situation.
Now, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is spending maximum time in Chandigarh to run the government. He is keeping an eye on every minute political development.
His son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal is moving around to re-connect with the masses, meet religious leaders. His wife Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal is camping at Delhi to stay connected with the national BJP leadership and Union ministers. A perusal of the records of the past month suggests that the Chief Minister did not visit his stronghold — the Malwa region — even once. SAD chief-cum-Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal came here five times. Harsimrat failed to make even a single appearance.
Though she attended the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit held on October 28 and 29 at Mohali, she did not come even once to this area or her native village falling in her Bathinda parliamentary constituency since the unrest started in the state. In the past, the Badals made frequent visits to Muktsar, Bathinda and Mansa districts.
An aide of the Badals, on condition of anonymity, said, “The Deputy CM has been given the task to move around to boost the morale of party activists, seek suggestions from people from different walks of life to come out of this situation. He is even holding talks with religious leaders.
“On the other hand, the Chief Minster is spending maximum time in Chandigarh to keep a close tab on the prevailing situation and stay connected with all senior officers and leaders.
“The Badal daughter-in-law has been given the task of staying in Delhi and to keep meeting all senior national leaders of coalition partner BJP.”
He said that Sukhbir was in his native village on October 1, 8, 21, 22, 23 and November 2, 3, 8 and 9. “During this period, he not only visited the neighbouring districts, but also held meetings of party workers at his residence,” said the SAD leader, who is close to the ruling family.
Meanwhile, top sources in the SAD said that though the Chief Minister had earlier planned to hold sangat darshan in his Lambi Assembly segment last month, he — due to the prevailing situation — changed his mind and deferred it indefinitely.
Similarly, Harsimrat last visited Mann village, located next to Badal village, adopted by her under the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY), on September 4.
