Akalis hurl abuses at each other inside Batala gurdwara

BATALA: The sanctity of historic Gurdwara Burj Sahib was thrown into the air when Akali leaders of Gurdaspur district and their supporters showered abuses at each other during a meeting of the district unit of SAD held at the gurdwara at Dhariwal on Friday.

After losing six out of seven seats in Gurdaspur district, the SAD leadership had sent senior leader Ajit Singh Kohar to ascertain the cause of party’s defeat in the assembly elections and also to plan the strategy of the forthcoming Gurdaspur parliamentary seat by-elections.

As the meeting started, former chief parliamentary secretary Gurbachan Singh Babbehali started his speech by seeking support of SAD leadership to oppose the case registered against his son by the Gurdaspur police.

He blamed sitting Congress MLA Barinder meet Singh Pahra for getting a ‘false’ case registered against his son. During his address, a SAD worker from Tibber raised a banner of revolt and alleged that the former minister might have forgotten that he was using same sort of tactics to curb his opposition. “You have to reap what you have sown,” he said.

As a verbal spat ensued between Babbehali and the worker, former zila parishad chairman and son of senior SAD leader Capt Balbir Singh Bath, Tirlok Singh Bath, entered the complex.

Seeing former CPS Desh Raj Dhugga sitting on the stage, Tirlok started blaming him for the defeat of SAD candidate from Shri Hargobindpur constituency.

He alleged that the party faced defeat from the panthic constituency only because of people’s opposition of Dhugga and now by giving a seat to Dhugga on stage, the party leadership had made fun of sentiments of the SAD workers.

For several minutes, the supporters of Bath and Dhugga exchanged abuses. Bath supporters even tried to push Dhugga down the stage but seeing the situation going out of hands, district SAD president Sucha Singh Langha scolded Bath and his supporters, following which they left the venue raising slogans against Dhugga.

When contacted, SAD leader Ajit Singh Kohar, who was appointed as the observer of the meeting, said that the meeting had exposed internal groupism among the local SAD leaders and he will report the entire proceedings of this meeting to the SAD president.