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Akali Dal open to alliance with BSP: Badal

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is also the Patron of the Shiromani Akali Dal, has said that the party is open to forging an alliance with any political party to ensure defeat of the Congress in the coming general elections.

Talking to reporters here earlier this week, he asserted that no political organisation except the Congress was “untouchable” for his party. The differences with the Congress, he added, were not personal but based on the latter’s programme which according to him was inimical towards Punjab, especially the Sikhs.

“We can never forget what all they have done to inflict unfathomable damage on us ever since Independence, especially during the last three decades,” he said.

Responding to a question, Mr. Badal said the Akali Dal was open to an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party as well and reminded that both parties had in alliance contested the Lok Sabha elections in the past. He did not elaborate if any steps were being initiated to align with the BSP..

About the events in New Delhi this past Monday and Tuesday, Mr. Badal said: “The UPA won but the country and democracy lost. The vote of trust for the government has come at the expense of trust among the people in our parliamentary system.”

Had the ruling alliance not subverted the democratic exercise, the UPA would have lost the vote of confidence. “Shameful scenes of display of naked money power” had confirmed the worst suspicion of the people about the moral degeneration in the political system, he added.

Mr. Badal said the country now looked up to the Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, to conduct a full and fair inquiry into the matter to expose the guilty and restore the faith of the people in the political system. He said while he had the highest regards for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as an individual, it was unbelievable that in his concluding speech he did not even consider the disgraceful incidents important enough to comment on.

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