Amarinder to hold rally on Badal's home turf in Lambi on Oct 7

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh will address a rally in Killianwali village in Lambi, the home constituency of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, on October 7 to take on the Akali stalwart on the sacrilege issue.

A Congress party delegation reviewed the Killianwali grain market site on Sunday for the proposed rally.

The delegation comprised Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, along with Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Raja Warring and Sandeep Sandhu.

The chief minister had earlier announced his decision to hold the rally in Lambi, the Assembly constituency of Badal, after the zila parishad elections in the state.

"Amarinder Singh had taken serious note of Badal's continued and wilful attempts to create communal unrest in the state through his deceitful statements on the report of Justice Ranjit Singh (Retd) on the widespread incidents of sacrilege that had taken place during the SAD-BJP rule," an official spokesperson said here Sunday.

The chief minister alleged that Badal had a habit of raising communal tensions by spreading a web of lies and misusing religion every time around the elections. He vowed to expose the Akali leader's real face to the people of Punjab.

"The former chief minister had been trying to spread a disinformation campaign on the issue of Bargarhi and other sacrilege cases, as well as the incidents of police firing on innocent and peaceful protestors in Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura, since the Commission had come out with its report," Amarinder Singh said Sunday.

"Badal, who has been under fire ever since the report was tabled in the state Assembly, is clearly desperate to divert public attention from his own role in these cases," the chief minister said, lambasting the former CM for allegedly exploiting the religious sentiments of the people to protect his interests.