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BATHINDA: Angry after allegedly being ignored by the Bathinda district police and the civil administration at a programme to mark the road safety fortnight, Punjab transport minister and senior BJP leader threatened self-immolation on Friday.

At the function, district officials were apparently busy attending to Bathinda MP and deputy chief minister's wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Soon after she finished her speech, all police officers and officials of the district administration left along with her.

Feeling slighted, the minister told the district police chief, ''I will immolate myself in front of your office. This is a state-level function on road safety, but you have no time or any officer for me.'' Lal announced his threat on the public address system to an audience comprising truck drivers, bus operators and mediapersons.

Lal asked all officers to return immediately after seeing off the Bathinda MP. But only a few constables returned. Enraged, he asked district transport officer Amandeep Bansal to call up Bathinda SSP and threatened him with self immolation.

Bathinda SSP SS Gill, however, refused to comment on the minister's outburst. Many police officers were present at the function, he said. ''Since Harsimrat Kaur was supposed to attend several other events in the district, the police needed to provide her security, too,'' he said.

This incident is likely to deepen the fissures between alliance partners SAD and BJP in the state.