Chaduni upset as Sanyukt Samaj Morcha offers his outfit ‘only a few seats’
In a video message, Chaduni said he had demanded 25 seats for his party but Rajewal’s SSM offered only nine
Haryana’s farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni has expressed displeasure over Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM) chief Balbir Singh Rajewal offering only a few seats to his political outfit Sanyukt Sangharsh Party (SSP) for the February 14 Punjab polls.
Chaduni’s made known his displeasure days after talks between his outfit SSP and Rajewal-led SSM for a pre-poll alliance. The SSM had also formed a committee for finalizing the seat-sharing arrangement with the SSP.
Polling for Punjab’s 117 assembly seats will be held on February 14 and votes will be counted on March 10.
In a video message, Chaduni said he had demanded 25 seats for his party but Rajewal’s SSM offered only nine seats. Chaduni said he will be forced to field candidates on his own if the SSM did not give adequate seats.
On January 9, Chaduni had held talks with the SSM for the poll pact and after that, he stopped the scheduled announcement of his party’s 10 candidates. “In the January 9 meeting (with the SSM), we requested them not to fight separately. You are ignoring us. We should fight jointly. We also stopped our press conference (for the announcement of candidates),” said Chaduni.
Various Punjab farmer bodies which had taken part in the stir against the Centre’s now-repealed farm laws had launched their political front — Sanyukt Samaj Morcha — last month and announced to contest the assembly polls.
The SSM, which had ruled out any alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, announced its first list of 10 candidates on Wednesday.
