Sidhu attacks Akalis for tying up with INLD

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday launched a veiled attack on NDA-ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for tying up with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in Haryana to fight against BJP candidates.

“Our allies hug us in Punjab, but in Haryana, they are wrestling with us (against the BJP), which is unethical,” said Sidhu at a rally at Dabwali in the Sirsa district for BJP candidate Dev Kumar Sharma.

Sidhu, who had been vocal against the Akali Dal leadership when he was an MP from Amritsar, used the occasion to launch a veiled attack on them.

“They support a person who claims that he will take oath from jail. How can they (Akalis) support convicts who have been jailed?” he said, in an apparent reference to the SAD fighting the October 15 polls in alliance with the INLD.

INLD president and former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, who is out on bail on health grounds after being incarcerated in a teachers' recruitment scam case, had a fortnight ago said he would take oath as the next chief minister from Tihar jail.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has campaigned for the INLD in Haryana, and even shared the stage with O P Chautala on September 25. SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal also began a hectic poll campaign from Sirsa on Wednesday to seek votes for the INLD-SAD candidates.

The BJP, an erstwhile ally of the INLD, is for the first time in Haryana’s history contesting on all the 90 Assembly seats on its own.