Pradeep Sharma
Chandigarh, April 7
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is set to spice up AAP election campaign of Sushil Gupta, INDIA bloc candidate, in Kurukshetra tomorrow.
Mann, who has emerged as the party “star campaigner” after the arrest of AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the ED in the alleged excise policy scam on March 21, will hold a road show in favour of Gupta, who is also AAP Haryana president, at Kurukshetra.
Under the tie-up with the Congress as part of the INDIA bloc, AAP is contesting from the lone Kurukshetra seat while the Congress will field candidates from the rest of the nine parliamentary seats in the state.
Gupta said the Haryana electorate was desperately waiting for change in the backdrop of the various acts of omission and commission of the BJP government in the past 10 years. The Punjab and Delhi models of good governance have caught the fancy of the Haryanvi voters and the results of the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections would show that people want change at the central and the state levels, Gupta claimed.
With the slogan of “badlenge Kurukshetra, badlenge Haryana, ibke INDIA ko jitana”, AAP is hoping to make its Lok Sabha debut from Kejriwal’s home state this time around. The party feels that the Congress support would prove to be a shot in the arm for Gupta, who is locked in a tough contest with industrialist- turned- politician Naveen Jindal (BJP) and INLD’s senior leader Abhay Chautala. The JJP is yet to name its candidate.
With Gupta launching an aggressive election campaign quite early with Congress support, Kurukshetra is considered to be the best bet for AAP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party will use Mann’s gift of the gab and his connect with the Punjabi population to woo voters in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election in Kurukshetra, a senior leader added.
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