In Mandi Gobindgarh, Manohar Lal Khattar says Haryana , Punjab will discuss water sharing

PATIALA: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Wednesday reached Mandi Gobindgarh to address industrialists in support of SAD-BJP Fatehgarh Sahib candidate Darbara Singh Guru, but ended up talking about the contentious issue of Punjab sharing its river water.


Khattar claimed on Wednesday that both the states, including Punjab and Haryana, will discuss the issue of Punjab’s river water being shared with Haryana .

If the matter does not get resolved, he said, the doors of Supreme Court were open for both states.

The two states have been in bitter dispute of the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYL) canal. The Haryana CM also appealed to industrialists to vote for the SAD-BJP alliance and ensure the victory of party candidate Guru, a former bureaucrat. He targetted the Punjab government, claiming that it provided electricity to industry at Rs 5 per unit, while his state had been supplying it at Rs 4.5 per unit.

Outgoing MP H S Khalsa, who joined BJP before the poll code came into force on March 10, did not attend the event. Khalsa had won the Fatehgarh Sahib seat on an AAP ticket in 2014, but resigned from the party before joining the BJP. Since then, he has been absent from his constituency and has been busy campaigning for friend and BJP Amritsar candidate Hardeep Singh Puri.

Khalsa, who is on cordial terms with people in his constituency, had earlier said he was busy campaigning for Puri. He said his actual career lay in foreign services as he was a former IFS officer, and not politics. After joining BJP, Khalsa had said it was for the party to decide his ticket from any seat.

BJP Fatehgarh Sahib president Pardeep Garg said Khalsa had been deputed to campaign for the Amritsar candidate.