Top INDIA leaders to attend Devi Lal's birth anniversary event on Sept 25

Indian National Lok Dal leader Abhay Singh Chautala on Wednesday said top leaders of opposition INDIA bloc will attend the Samman Divas Maha rally in Kaithal on September 25 to mark the birth anniversary of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal.

"We have sent out invites for the event and many have already confirmed that they will come," Abhay told reporters in Chandigarh.

However, when specifically asked if the Congress party has also been invited for the event, Abhay said, "We still have time to invite more people and we will discuss who else is to be invited. Why are you in a hurry."

He said that so far Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury have confirmed their participation.

He said among others invites have also been sent to Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar.

Abhay Chautala said that Banerjee has told him that she had some preoccupation on that day and she will depute a senior leader of her party for the event while Thackeray told him that if he is unable to attend due to some reasons he will send a senior leader for the event.

He said he will meet NCP leader Sharad Pawar in a day or two and also personally invite him.

"We have also sent out invites to some other partners of the INDIA bloc," he said.

He further said that his father and INLD president Om Prakash Chautala was the first leader to re-group the opposition leaders at one of the Samman Divas events in the previous year. "Who laid the foundation of this?. We laid its foundation," said Abhay about the INDIA bloc.

He said Devi Lal's birth anniversary is celebrated as Samman Divas each year in which leaders of different political parties from all over the country participate and pay their respects.

On a question asked on the factionalism in the Haryana unit of Congress, the INLD leader said that "the Congress leaders are not fighting for the public but for their own selfishness and personal supremacy".

"But when it comes to playing the role of an opposition and raising issues pertaining to the public, they remain silent," he said.

On a question asked on Haryana Minister Sandeep Singh, who was last year booked by the Chandigarh police in a sexual harassment case, Abhay Chautala said despite chargesheet having been filed recently in the case before a court in Chandigarh by the police the chief minister has not sacked him.

"If Sandeep Singh has even a little bit of shame left, he should resign," he said.

"Even after the chargesheet against Sandeep Singh, chief minister shamelessly says in the assembly that he will not remove the minister..under what pressure CM why he is not asking for his resignation. Why is he protecting him," he said, adding Sandeep Singh should have been arrested long ago.

"Had there been any other person, the Chadigarh Police would not have taken a minute to put him and his entire family behind bars," he said.