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Akalis pressure Badal to opt out of government over Udhamsingh Nagar

Pressure is building up in the Prakash Singh Badal's Shiromani Akali Dal for the withdrawal of its two Union ministers from the AB Vajpayee government on the ground that their demand for exclusion of Udhamsingh Nagar from the proposed hill state of Uttarakhand was rejected by Union Home Minister L K Advani.

Akali Dal sources said Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee President Gurucharan Singh Tohra has already asked Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal to decide quickly on pulling out the two ministers, Surjit Singh Barnala and Sukhbir Singh Badal.

He is also understood to have told Badal that the party should also consider withdrawing its support to the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in case the BJP stuck to their stand of inclusion of Udhamsingh Nagar in Uttarakhand.

Tohra has already gone on record taking strong exception to the treatment meted out to the allies by the BJP and its top leaders. Under these circumstances, it would be difficult for the Akali Dal to support the BJP in the coming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference at Chandigarh, the SGPC president described as ''unfortunate'' that both the BJP and the Congress have joined hands to deny justice to the Sikh and Punjabi farmers of Udhamsingh Nagar. This only showed both the major political parties in the country have scant respect for the sentiments of minorities.

In this situation, the Akalis will have no option but to steer clear of both the parties and float a third front of regional forces, Tohra said.

Meanwhile, sources said while Tohra is pursing a hardline towards the BJP government, Badal is understood to be favouring a ''wait and watch'' approach. Badal, however, is firm that Udhamsingh Nagar should not be included in the proposed hill state and there was no question of a compromise on the issue.

The Punjab unit of the BJP, a partner of the Akali coalition government in the state, is not in favour of the manner in which the Akalis had taken up the Udhamsingh Nagar issue with the Centre, the sources said. The BJP state leaders viewed that the Akalis should not take the issue to ''a point of no return'' as it hardly affected them (Akalis) in Punjab, they added.

UNI

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