The Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) urged people to elect incarcerated Lok Sabha member MP Amritpal Singh as the Chief Minister of Punjab in the upcoming Assembly elections. The outfit’s conference here on Maghi Mela served as a platform for various Panthic leaders to slam the current government while highlighting long-standing grievances regarding religious and social issues. The speakers focused on a wide array of challenges currently facing Punjab, emphasising the need for a “regime change”. The unresolved cases of sacrilege and the subsequent police firing on protesters at Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura in 2015 remained central to the discourse. The outfit leaders alleged that the proliferation of drugs and a rising crime graph were part of a “nefarious design” to weaken the state’s social fabric. Faridkot MP Sarabjit Singh Khalsa alleged that the Amrtipal’s detention in Assam’s Dibrugarh Jail was a “deliberate move to sabotage his crusage against drugs