Ramoowalia drums up support for Akhilesh
CHANDIGARH: Former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, who was inducted as a minister in the Samajwadi Party (SP) government in Uttar Pradesh in October 2015, is now drawing upon his ancestral skills of a balladeer (dhadi) to drum up support for chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in the ongoing state assembly polls.
Singing paens to Akhilesh, he has even coined a slogan to mobilise people of various communities to get united to ensure the young CM’s return to power.
“Punjabi, Hindu, Sindhi tey Sikh… Akhilesh de layi ho jao ik,” chants Ramoowalia, who claims to be SP’s star campaigner, at election rallies in UP. The state has a population of around 45 lakh Sikhs and he claims to be the only Sikh leader in the SP.
Talking to HT, he said Punjabis, Hindus, Sindhis and Sikhs have a Punjab connect and his slogan is an effort to bring them under the SP umbrella.
“I am focusing on Lakhimpur, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow, Bareilley, Kanpur, and Rae Bareli districts and trying to connect with small ethnic groups in these areas,” said the former Union minister who was campaigning in Pilibhit on Sunday.
He said SP might not have fielded a Sikh to contest in the ongoing assembly polls, but he is raising the voice of the community in the party.
Ramoowalia, who is a member of legislative council (MLC), said he did not want to contest himself. “My term as an MLC will continue till April 2022 and there’s no need for me to contest,” he said. He also claimed that as the jails minister in UP, he enjoyed more powers than all other ministers in the SP government. “Because relatives of all ministers are in jail, so they approach me to help them,” quips Ramoowalia.
In alliance with the Congress, SP is contesting 298 of the total 403 assembly seats in UP, with the remaining 105 seats in the Congress kitty.
Ramuwalia said that in SP’s election manifesto, he got included the promise of setting up a mandi board in UP on the pattern of Punjab to help farmers sell their agriculture produce. SP has also promised to streamline revenue records to help the farmers.
‘WOULD HAVE GIVEN SIDHU, MANN RUN FOR THEIR MONEY’
Regarding SAD, with which he had merged his Lok Bhalai Party in 2011, he said, “Akalis failed to use my oratorical skills, but SP has given me full honour and I would not let them down.”
“Had they (Akalis) retained me, I would have given run for their money to Navjot Singh Sidhu of Congress and Bhagwant Mann of Aam Aadmi Party as I have idiom, history and Gurbani on my side while their knowledge is shallow,” he added.