Chandigarh, October 5: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday decided to advance its hunger strike programme to October 6 to allow the party MPs and MLAs to go to Bargari village of Faridkot to express solidarity with protesters led by parallel jathedars.
The AAP’s newly constituted 22-member core committee took the decision at a meeting held here after the party was accused of holding the Chandigarh programme on October 7 to “torpedo the protest march” planned by its rebel leaders and some Sikh organisations from Kotkapura to Bargari the same day.
“The day-long hunger strike in front of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s residence was announced to press the party’s demand for action against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son, SAD chief and former deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, in connection with sacrilege incidents and the subsequent police action in 2015. However, some mischievous elements started spreading false rumours that it was planned to counter the march,” said Sunam MLA Aman Arora.
The MLA said the hunger strike will now be held a day earlier so that the party’s elected representatives can go to Bargari on Sunday to express support to protesters who have been protesting there for the past four months.
After the hunger strike was announced by the core committee on Wednesday, AAP rebel leader Sukhpal Khaira slammed the move, accusing the rival group of becoming a party to “nefarious conspiracy of Congress and SAD to torpedo the protest march”.