BSP helping SAD for 2017 Assembly polls: Amarinder

Punjab Congress leader Amarinder Singh today accused BSP of having a "tacit understanding" with the SAD to help them in Assembly polls next year.
"There is a tacit understanding between Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Akali Dal in Punjab, and this was the reason why Mayawati was not aligning with Congress," he said here.
He alleged that the BSP chief has also decided to field candidates in all the 117 Assembly constituencies in Punjab despite strong reservations from her party leaders and workers in Punjab on "help" to Akalis.
Mayawati had ruled out an alliance with any political party in Punjab Assembly polls scheduled for next year during her rally at Nawanshahr in Punjab on March 15.

She had then said that "the party would go all alone during the polls".
Attacking Aam Aadmi Party, Singh said it will meet the same fate as People's Party of Punjab (PPP) in 2012 Assembly polls.

The PCC president claimed that voting for AAP will mean voting for the Akalis as it might help them the same way the PPP facilitated their (Akalis') victory in 2012 against the popular and "widespread perception that Akalis were going to lose".
Referring to the ongoing interaction with his party workers, he said it was an inter-personal communication to seek their opinion on various issues including the drafting of the election manifesto.

"I am not making any speeches in these interactions but only answering questions from the workers," he said, adding that it was a "two-way communication."
Asked how a Congress government would arrange funds for schemes like the widow and handicapped pension and Shagun Scheme when the state had no money, Singh said like in the previous term when he had imposed a special Re 1 cess on each bottle of liquor, the same will be done again.
The money will be directly transferred to Social Welfare department, he said. "I have done it in the past and I will do it again."

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Amarinder said the AAP euphoria has already "fizzled out" in Punjab.
"The party has already been trifurcated with two MPs on one side, another group led by Yoginder Yadav on the other side and the third led by Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak in Punjab," he said, adding, the party is likely to break up further.
He also invited party worker Preet Singh to his residence at Moti Bagh Palace in Patiala.
Preet Singh, while asking a question to Amarinder expressed his urge that he wanted to see the palace.
Amarinder told him although he mostly remains outstation, whenever he will be back in Patiala he will ask district president Hardayal Kambhoj to arrange for the visit.