Drugs menace not an issue in Delhi polls: Badal

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said that the drug menace was hardly an issue in the upcoming Delhi Assembly polls and described it as a "malicious propaganda" unleashed by the opposition to "defame Punjabis and tarnish the state's image".

"Drug problem in the state was neither an issue in Punjab nor in Delhi, but it is being blown out of proportion by the opposition under a deep rooted conspiracy to tarnish the image of hard working Punjabis," he said after his 'Sangat Darshan' programme in this district.

The state government has taken unprecedented steps to check the supply of drugs from across the border and for making Punjab a drug-free state, he said.

On Shiromani Akali Dal's strategy for contesting the Delhi polls, he said the party president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal was camping in the national capital to formulate the plan for contesting these polls.

"The party would be contesting these polls as per the programme given by the party leadership," he said.

Badal said that the entire rank and file of the party was fully prepared for contesting the ensuing polls and he would also campaign in Delhi as per the duty assigned by the party.

On a query regarding the seat arrangement between SAD-BJP alliance in these polls, the Chief Minister reiterated that it was hardly an issue and the top brass of both the parties would finalise it soon.

Badal said the decision of BJP to contest polls under the leadership of Kiran Bedi was the prerogative of the party.

Earlier addressing the gatherings during Sangat Darshan in village Lohara, Ghumiara, Chak Middu Singh Wala, Vanwaala and Khoewali, the Chief Minister exhorted the villagers to unite for the cause of development of their respective villages.