SYL verdict: Amarinder Singh wants President's rule in Punjab, calls for elections in December

Congress Punjab unit chief Amarinder Singh demanded imposition of President's Rule in the state on 10 November, following the SYL verdict. He also sought early elections, claiming Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal may try to create trouble to further his vested political interests.

"Let there be elections in December," Singh said after sending his resignation from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat to the Speaker in the wake of the Supreme Court judgement, favouring Haryana in the Sutlej-Yamuna Canal link case.

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"We will go to the people over this issue," he said in a statement, adding, "Having failed to safeguard the interests of the people of Punjab, Badal will now try to cause trouble, and so, the sooner he is out of power, the better for the state."

The already fragile situation in the state has been aggravated as a result of this development and is ripe for mischievous elements to whip up trouble, he claimed, adding that terrorist groups from across the border could exploit the situation to create mayhem in the poll-bound state.

"To avoid this, the state should be immediately placed under the Governor's rule and elections should be held by December," he said. Stating that the Akalis had 10 years to resolve the SYL issue, which they failed to address, Singh added, "It is too late for them to be thinking of ways and means to wriggle out of the situation that is of their own making."

He said that during its decade-long rule, the Badal government should have fought the case effectively and should have battled for the implementation of the riparian principles of water sharing.

--PTI