Before the rally, a cavalcade of 15 vehicles with supporters dancing to dhol beats and cleaving the air with slogans moved around the city.

Road from BMC Chowk towards Nakodar Chowk and Avtar Nagar was blocked, and people had to struggle to reach their destinations in the scorching heat.

Meanwhile, at the rally, Operation Bluestar and anti-Sikh riots hogged the limelight. Senior BJP leaders also addressed the people in the favour SAD candidate. BJP secretary Balbir Punj said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was “a circus tiger, whose whip was with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi”.

His remarks came days after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said in Bathinda that the PM was Sher-e-Punjab.

Punj said, “Our PM is only a rubber stamp, who was not even aware that tickets were being given to Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar and CBI’s clean chit to the former. What PM could not do, journalist Jarnail Singh’s shoe did.”

Without lampooning the PM, CM Badal attacked the Congress, saying that the Centre never did anything for Punjab.