Q: What is your reading of the electoral landscape in Punjab?

A: People want a stable, strong government and a decisive chief minister. The CM face is going to make a lot of difference. The right choice can take the state forward and a wrong one will push it backwards like in the last five years. So, the Congress is completely out. The people of Punjab don’t trust (AAP chief Arvind) Kejriwal. Half of his 20 MLAs have left him. Others also want to follow suit, but there are no takers. In 2017, people had put some faith in him, but they now feel disappointed. The AAP has since been dipping. Today, Kejriwal comes and goes, hardly anyone in Punjab cares. Last time (in 2017), his rallies used to draw a big gathering but now they are marriage palace affairs. People still trust the Shiromani Akali Dal because we are the only Punjab party with a proven track record of development, be it power plants, airports, roads, urban infrastructure or social welfare. I have been the only leader on the ground in the last two months and can sense the big response we are getting.

Q: The Punjab assembly contest is shaping up as a four-way fight. Who do you see as your main challenger?

A: It appears to be multi-cornered only from an academician’s perspective. In reality, it is not. On a majority of the seats – I will say, 110 out of 117 – the SAD and the Congress will fight for pole position. On some, it would be the SAD versus the AAP.

Q: How serious is the setback of an FIR against your senior leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug case?

A: There is no setback. The Congress government in 2002 had put a false case against my father and me, too. Yet, people voted us to power in 2007 because they knew it was a vendetta. In Bikram’s case, I have never seen a more false FIR that can ever be registered. Three director generals of police (DGPs) were changed because they were not ready to file an FIR. Three chiefs of the Bureau of Investigation were shifted because they gave in writing that it is a false case and we will not do it. Then, they brought in Siddharth Chattopadhyaya who has been rejected by the UPSC for the DGP post. He agreed to do his political master’s bidding only to become the DGP. There is no credibility. The case in which Bikram has been framed has been settled by the court five years ago. Neither was he made an accused nor did his name come up in the trial.

Q: But these arguments centred on the political vendetta allegation didn’t find favour with the Mohali court which denied him anticipatory bail?

A: I don’t want to comment on the local court. We have full faith in the judiciary. Remember what happened in the case of Shah Rukh Khan’s son who was implicated in a false case? He got relief from the higher court. We will fight the judicial battle and use all our legal options.

Q: Has this not hurt you in the game of perception in election time?

A: Not at all. Have not you seen hundreds of people protesting in Bikram’s support? Even our political rivals like the AAP have called the FIR an election stunt. You know Bikram better than me. No sane guy will ever get into the drug business. This is just a game. We are with him because it is a patently false case. We will fight it out. The Congress government has done this only to divert attention from their failures. For five years, they have been harping on the sacrilege case. Commissions and SITs were set up. But the high court threw their case out because it was all politically motivated. Likewise, on drugs, they are playing their political game because they have the power to register a case.

Q: The Congress has managed to resurrect the drug and sacrilege issues to corner you just before the elections.

A: These have come to haunt Congress. They promised to put the culprits behind bars. Nothing has happened all these years. Rather than catching the guilty, the Congress government was only obsessed with defaming us. Have they caught a single Akali worker in a drug case in the last five years?

Q: But the government says it has fulfilled its promise by taking action against Majithia?

A: Have they caught drugs with him? If I, as CM, say Rahul Gandhi is the biggest drug lord in the country and register an FIR, does it make him that (a drug lord)? Saying is nothing.

Q: The FIR against Majithia is based on the Enforcement Directorate’s statements of the accused in a drug case.

A: The ED investigated and pursued the case in court, but it neither made Bikram an accused nor a witness. They just questioned him once and asked him for clarifications, which he gave. That is it. The case has been closed. People found guilty were jailed and others acquitted. Now they have fabricated an FIR. Have you ever seen a DGP writing directly to the SHO (station house officer) to register a case on drugs without any evidence?

Q: How has Charanjit Singh Channi’s elevation as the state’s first Dalit CM impacted the SAD’s alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party?

A: Punjab’s SC (Scheduled Caste) samaj does not consider Channi a part of them because he never stood for them when he was a minister in the Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government. He never raised his voice when SC students were denied scholarships for five years. An individual doesn’t represent a community. If I’m a Jat Sikh, that doesn’t mean all Jat Sikhs will vote for me. Channi has become a joke of the state. Even state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu calls him Channi instead of ‘CM sahib’.

Q: How do you look at the alliance between Captain Amarinder Singh and the BJP?

A: Zero plus zero is equal to zero. People of Punjab don’t like the BJP. The captain is a lost cause. He was removed for being an incompetent CM. How can he now ask for another five years? Punjab is a highly aware state. People are clear about whom they want.

Q: How do you look at the 22 farm unions’ decision to contest the Punjab assembly elections? Will this impact the SAD’s base in peasantry?

A: Everyone has the right to test waters. So they are most welcome. It won’t impact us. Our cadres supported the Kisan morcha for a cause, not farm unions. Now that the morcha is over, they are back in our fold.

Q: What if the farm unions ally with the AAP?

A: Then they will be seen to be backing out from their stand to stay away from political parties. It will dent their credibility if they do that.

Q: Why should people vote for the SAD?

A: We are the only Punjab party. We represent the aspirations of the people of Punjab. Other parties are national parties and their stake in Punjab is limited to gaining power, not for the cause of the state. Whenever there is a clash between the interest of the state and the government of India, these parties are not going to stand for Punjab because they have a conflict of interest. In Delhi, Kejriwal wants to shut Punjab’s thermal plants because of smoke reaching the national capital. Can you trust him? The Punjab BJP kept saying that the farm laws are good just because of their national stand. So, who will fight for Punjab? Only the SAD will. Second, we have credibility on the development track record. I challenge Congress to name one big-ticket project they have done for Punjab.

Q: How crucial is the upcoming election for your leadership?

A: This is more crucial for Punjab. Because this is the first time that three governments are fighting with full might against a regional party. There is an all-power Centre, then the AAP government of Delhi with a ₹800-crore publicity budget and the Congress government in Punjab with police might and the government of India with all their might. All three are not targeting each other but only the SAD. If a regional party is slaughtered, the voice of Punjab will be crushed.

Q: Will the SAD and the BJP come together if the post-election verdict demands so?

A: I don’t visualise that. We have already gone so far. Look at our alliance with the BSP. The BJP will not get anything. Captain will get zero. Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa will get minus 10. They will not be anybody’s choice.