Cong govt in Pb didn't honour its poll promises, will observe Vishvaghat Divas on March 2: SAD-BJP

The SAD and its ally the BJP Saturday accused the ruling Congress in Punjab of going back on its "tall promises" made to the people of Punjab and decided to observe 'Vishvaghat Divas' (Betrayal Day) on March 2 against the state government.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP which held the first meeting of its the state-level coordination committee here and discussed the strategy and preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections said they would hold constituency-wise protests throughout the state.

Both the parties exuded confidence that they would win in all the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

"The Congressgovernment in Punjab has put the people of the state on a ventilator, stabbed the farmers, traders, employees, the Dalits and every other Punjabi in the back by going back on all the tall promises made to them during the Assembly poll campaign," alleged SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and the BJP state unit president Shwait Malik after the meeting at the SAD headquarters here Saturday evening.

The two parties decided to put pressure on the state government to release the dearness allowance arrears to the state government employees and not to "play havoc" with their everyday life.

Giving details of the decisions taken at the meeting, Badal and Malik said the SAD and the BJP would go into the election campaign in an alliance unit while asserting that the bond between the two was far more than a political arrangement and was in fact a social commitment to preserve peace and communal harmony in the Punjab.

The two parties decided that coordination panels between the two parties would be set up at the district and constituency levels.

The coordination committee meeting welcomed the Centre's decision of the direct income support to every farmer to the tune of Rs 6,000 per annum and decided that a joint delegation would approach the Union finance minister with a request to significantly enhance this amount.

Badal said that the Modi government had given the country a "corruption-free" government for five years and has taken historic decisions for Punjab and the Sikh community, including the decision to open the Kartarpur Sahib corridor.