Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said Manjinder Singh Sirsa, his point person in Delhi who joined the BJP on Wednesday, joined the saffron camp fearing jail.Â
Badal claimed that former SAD MLA Sirsa had sent him a message on WhatsApp some days ago of the FIR registered against him, saying he would be arrested.
“We are being attacked for supporting the farmers’ protest after severing ties with BJP. It is a clear case of attack on Sikh Panth and Sikh representative body DSGMC as Sirsa was arm-twisted for induction in the BJP. They want to take control of DSGMC,” Badal told reporters.
Badal also showed a printout of the WhatsApp message from Sirsa.Â
“They put a gun on Sirsa’s head and asked him to choose between jail and joining the BJP. Whatever he has said is out of that compulsion,” he said.
Sirsa was also the president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC.) Sirsa resigned from the post just on Wednesday, shortly before he joined the BJP in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah and party president JP Nadda in New Delhi.
Badal has alleged that the Union government has been building pressure on 11 DSGMC members “to break them and false cases were registered against them.”
“They were called to police stations and told they should either leave SAD or face arrests. Sirsa called me up to say that noose was being tightened around him. He sent me the FIR on WhatsApp, with a message that he would be arrested. DSGMC general secretary Harmeet Singh Kalsa faced the same issue but he and others withstood the pressure,” Badal said.
“Earlier, Gandhi family tried suppressing and breaking the Akali Dal, but could not succeed. Now they (BJP) are following the same approach,” said Badal.
Harpreet Singh also expressed similar sentiments, saying that Sirsa was arm-twisted for induction in the saffron party.
“I had talked to Sirsa on Wednesday morning and felt as if he was given an offer to either choose BJP or go to jail. He chose BJP,” Singh said.
