Party leader says it will be AAP Aaye, Bahaar Aayi in 2017 polls

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, April 18

Shiromani Akali Dal and Congress, which have started making appeals to the voters to get together and throw out the Aam Aadmi Party from Punjab, will lose face in the 2017 Assembly elections, AAP spokesperson Kultar Singh said here today. He made this statement on the sidelines of a meeting held with party leaders and workers.

“While the BJP is scared of the AAP in Delhi, in Punjab, both SAD and Congress are afraid of its growing popularity. They are increasingly growing insecure of the party as the common man is siding with the AAP. This is the reason that at most of their rallies, SAD and Congress leaders target the AAP and urge the people to throw the party out of Punjab,” Kultar said.

He said at the political conventions held at Talwandi Sabo on Baisakhi Mela last week, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and PPCC president Captain Amarinder Singh targeted AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal in their speeches.

“The fact that the AAP is the hot topic of their speeches now shows the increasing base of the party in Punjab,” he said.

Calling the party’s convention at Talwandi Sabo a ‘tremendous success’, Kultar said while the numbers didn’t matter much, one must take into account the fact that whoever came to the AAP convention, came on his/her own. 

“The SAD and Congress arranged for buses and vehicles to ferry paid audience from across the state and some parts of neighbouring states such as Haryana and Rajasthan. Relying on such paid audience for their show of strength is a common tactic adopted by these parties. More than their own conventions, they were worried about the swarm of people who turned up to listen to AAP leaders. This is the strength of the AAP,” he added. 

Talking about the party’s outreach programmes, the AAP spokesperson added that the party leaders and volunteers were working closely with the public to identify the real problems and issues to make sure that these are taken up in the party’s agenda for the 2017 elections.