New Delhi, Nov 11: Claiming majority support in the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, Akali Dal today charged Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh with launching a crackdown on SGPC members from that party and demanded his resignation for allowing police to enter the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. "We have 107 members in the 176-member SGPC," senior Akali Dal leaders S S Dhindsa, union minister, and Sukhbir Singh Badal, son of party chief Parkash Singh Badal claimed at a press conference here.
They presented 98 of their members before journalists and claimed that some eight to nine others had already reached Amritsar. They later posed for photographers with the SGPC members. Demanding resignation of the chief minister for allowing police to enter the Golden Temple complex, both Dhindsa and Badal accused him of siding with the Tohra group and preventing other SGPC members from entering the holy city by arresting or even kidnapping them and imposing section 144 CrPC to prohibit their movement.
"We have chartered a flight to Amritsar and apprehend that all of us, including the 98 SGPC members, will be arrested on landing at the airport," they said.
Alleging that 2000 Akali Dal (Badal) workers have been arrested in the run up to SGPC polls, he said an NDA team is visiting Amritsar to take stock of the situation.
The team comprises Union Minister Sahib Singh Verma, MPs P C Thomas, B D'souza, Anita Arya and J S Mann besides Badal and he himself, Dhindsa said. Bureau Report