Neel Kamal/TNNLongowal: The standoff between Shiromani Akali Dal and Shiromani Akali Dal (Punar Surjit) over the venue to observe the 41st death anniversary of Sant Harchand Singh Longowal persisted on Thursday. Allegations and counter allegations remained paramount at the respective conferences organised separately by both the parties on Thursday. If SAD (Punar Surjit) accused Sukhbir Singh Badal led SAD of turning the grand old party to a personal fiefdom, the SAD accused Punar Surjit and other Akali Dals of working at the ‘behest of enemies’ with the sole aim to weaken the 105-year-old party.during the SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal, party secretary general Balwinder Singh Bhundar, SGPC President Harjinder Singh Dhami and others accused the SAD (Punar Surjit) to be hand in glove with the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab to torpedo the SAD conference as they were expecting to draw big crowds which may revive the fortunes of the Shiromani Akali Dal. Even though the Punjab and Haryana High Court had allotted Akali Dal a site under shed number 3 in the grain market which initially was allotted to AAP for organizing a blood donation camp but SAD preferred to shift to another venue. The party functionaries stated that such a massive crowd at the new venue should be an eye opener for all as Akali Dal is coming back to the forefront.
