Amarinder addresses massive rally in Ludhiana

Ludhiana, Nov 14 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today declared an ''electoral war'' against his predecessor Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Parkash Singh Badal, asserting that nobody could stop the victory march of the Congress in the ensuing assembly polls.

The ruling Congress would retain power in the state which was visible from the today's massive gathering of people in lakhs, Capt Singh said while addressing a massive state level rally here.

''The crowds which gathered here and the tremedious response I got during my 'Vikas rally' in the state have conveyed to the Akalis that they can not return to power in Punjab now,'' the Chief Minister said.

He said the Congress had got tremendous response even in the Akali stronghold Malwa region during the 'vikas yatra'.

Capt Singh said that the pro-people policies of the Congress both at the Centre and in the state had led the party to win the confidence of the people of the state.

''We are committed to the development of Punjab and its people because we are in the government due to their mandate and confident that the people of Punjab will again give us opportunity to serve them,'' he said.

Lambasting the Akalis, he said that the erstwhile Badal regime had degraded Punjab by adopting anti-people policies. ''These Akalis had been filling up their own coffers att he expense of the people's interest and the state ex-chequer,'' he said.

He said the ''Badals and their cronies'' never bothered to take any initiative for the development during the previous three tenures of their regime. ''What to talk of diversification of agriculture, industrialisation and up-gradation of infrastructure, he (Badal) did not add a single unit to the power generation in the state,'' Capt Singh said.

The Chief Minister further said that Mr Badal knew fully that power was the engine of development. Now, we had prepared a blue print to generate additional power of 13000 MWs, besides the existing capacity of 5700 MWs.'' Capt Singh said that Mr Badal had only one agenda and ''that was to promote his son Sukhbir Badal in Akali politics for the chief ministership out of his blind and unbounded love for him thereby, ignoring the senior Akali leadership.'' UNI XC PS RR RS2020