GURDASPUR, Dec 2: AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal Saturday slammed BJP MP Sunny Deol for “betraying” voters of the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency, saying such “big people” would do nothing for people’s welfare.
As he asked people to vote for ‘aam aadmi’ (common man) in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Kejriwal exuded confidence that given the amount of love and blessings his party was getting in Punjab, the AAP will win all 13 parliamentary seats in the state in the next year general elections.
The Delhi chief minister and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann launched development projects worth Rs 1,854 crore here, including an inter-state bus terminus.
The AAP national convener also trained his guns on MP Sunny Deol for his absence from his constituency. He accused Deol of betraying the voters of Gurdaspur.
“Last time, you elected Sunny Deol (from this seat). Did he ever come? Have you ever seen his face? He never came,” said Kejriwal.
“We thought he was a very big actor and by giving him votes, he will do something. Such big people will do nothing. Give votes to ‘aam aadmi’, he will do something for you and he will pick up your phone…” said Kejriwal as he asked people to vote for the AAP in the Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, Mann too lambasted MP Deol for abandoning his constituency after the state assembly elections.
Mann said such people are insensitive and have no sympathy for the common man.
“He (Deol) came to offer prayers at the Golden Temple for the success of his movie but did not bother to visit his constituency which is just 40 km away. Such people could not understand the pain of common people,” he added.
“He is just moving around with ‘dhaai kilo ka haath’,” said Mann while taking a dig at Deol and said he could have brought funds from the Centre for some projects in his constituency.
The Punjab chief minister said now the time has come to show such leaders the door and instead bring those to power who are committed to people.
Hitting out at the previous governments for “looting” Punjab, Kejriwal said the “honest” AAP government has filled the state exchequer which was left empty by the rival parties when they were in power.
Addressing the gathering, Kejriwal said he believed it was the first time Punjab was seeing such ‘vikas kranti’ (development) and said the government would soon launch Rs 1,850 crore worth of projects in one of the Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
He added that projects worth Rs 850 crore were launched in the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha constituency on November 18 and a pilgrimage scheme was launched in Dhuri a few days ago.
Kejriwal said the AAP had won four seats from Punjab when it fought elections in 2014 and then one seat in 2019.
“This time, with the amount of love and blessings we are getting, my heart says we will win 14 out of 13 seats with the blessing of ‘Guru Maharaj’,” said Kejriwal. He was referring to the Chandigarh Lok Sabha as an extra seat.
Speaking about the development projects in Gurdaspur, Kejriwal said the AAP fulfilled the main demand of the people here by constructing a new bus terminus.
“No other party did it. When you went to other parties, they used to say that they did not have funds. They did have funds but they looted that money,” he added.
“Now there is an honest government and I assure you that there is no shortage of money, the AAP national convenor said, adding, “Punjab ka khazana bhara hua hai (Punjab’s exchequer is filled).”
“In the last one-and-half years, we have filled the treasury which they left empty. We will meet all your requirements,” he further said.
He slammed the opposition parties for constantly abusing the AAP government for doing work aimed at public welfare, be it the ‘Tirath Yatra’ pilgrimage scheme, free electricity, or any other project.
In his address, Mann accused the Centre of withholding the state’s funds including rural development fund to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore as he accused the BJP-led Centre of being “anti-Punjab”.
Mann said being a border state, Punjab is fighting the nation’s war to combat terrorism and drugs but unfortunately whenever it needs central para military forces to maintain law and order on behalf of the country, it is asked to pay a hefty fee for it.
He said this clause of ‘para military forces on rent’ should be abolished for Punjab, adding that it was unfortunate that the state whose maximum sons are martyred while serving the country in the armed forces has to pay this fee. (PTI)
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