Cong, official machinery worked like coalition of gangsters: Sukhbir

Chandigarh September 22- – Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Baddal today “ came down heavily against the Congress government for making a mockery of democracy and making Punjab infamous all over the world for its “state sponsored goonda-ism” to sabotage people’s will.

‘This is disgraceful but it shows how quickly the Congress has lost the confidence of the people’, he said. The Congress really lost this poll hands down and they know it.They were forced to announce a fabricated and fake victory through alteration of results.

Mr Badal praised his “brave and tireless soldiers for fighting the Congress tyranny. They fought to uphold democracy and I congratulate them on exposing the real face of the Congress.

“Instead of celebrating, the Congress, should be mourning the death of democracy in Punjab and the premature death of the mandate which they had received in February 2017. It is a sad day for Congress in reality, and a bad day for democracy.”

In a strongly worded statement here this afternoon, Mr Badal said, “The Congress, the state bureaucracy, the police and even the Chief Electoral Officer functioned like a coalition of gangsters to deny the people their right to vote without fear. The offices of the senior government functionaries like DCs and SSPs and of the CEC worked like extension counters of the Congress. At many places, senior police officers led the Congress gangs. This is a shameless abuse of people’s trust by the ruling party and an equally disgraceful abdication of moral and official responsibility by the officers of the state government,” said Mr Badal.

Mr Badal said that the fact that the Congress government felt compelled to resort to such widespread and wanton high-handedness, booth capturing, brazenly wrong declaration of results and other electoral malpractices showed that they have completely lost faith in the people’s will. “ It is an expression of no-confidence in the Punjabis. They have admitted that they stand no chance against the SAD-BJP in a free and fair poll. Because of their misgovernance and the betrayal of the people on all the promises they had made to Punjabis before assembly elections, the Congress knew that it was heading for a humiliating defeat, and they have changed it only books.

They have lost the poll in reality,” ” said Mr Badal.