BADALS GIVE OATHTAKING CEREMONY A MISS

For someone who had ruled the state for 10 years straight, the absence from the first day of the 15th Vidhan Sabha raised several eyebrows.

Had former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal been present in the assembly on Friday, he would have been one of the many members who took oath well below in the pecking order after the chief minister, cabinet ministers and the leader of the opposition. That is what seems to have kept the octogenarian leader, who had lorded over the assembly proceedings as five-time CM, away.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal too was not present on day one, leaving the party’s ‘Majhe da Jarnail’ Bikram Majithia to lead the SAD MLAs.

The father-son duo would be attending only the Punjab governor’s address on March 28 after taking oath in the office of the speaker. The speaker has the power to allow any member to take oath of office inside his chambers instead of on the speaker’s podium in the assembly hall.

Seated in one corner of the opposition benches, Akali MLAs were feeling out of place but were in high spirits. “It is fine. We need to sit back and introspect. Also we all need some rest!” said former cabinet minister Sharanjit Singh Dhillon.

“It is much easier to sit in the Opposition than be on the other side (treasury benches). There we had to keep quiet all the time. Being in the Opposition means we can at least speak as much as we want and criticise the government,” said Majithia, who would be speaking on behalf of the party on the governor’s address.