Ashu’s close associate, 17 others join AAP

The AAP got significant boost today before the Ludhiana (West) byelection, while the Congress suffered yet another setback. On Tuesday, Lucky Bansal, a close associate of Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu from ward No. 63 in Ludhiana, joined the AAP along with his associates.

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Punjab AAP working president Amansher Singh Shery Kalsi in the presence of party MLAs Ashok Parashar Pappi, Kuljit Randhawa, Kulwant Sidhu, AAP leader Sharanpal Makkar and other party office bearers formally inducted the new leaders into the party fold and welcomed them.

Along with Lucky, his associates Kapil Gupta, Sonia Gupta, Sonu Nagpal, Kapila, Siddharth and about 12 supporters joined the party.

Addressing the media, Kalsi stated that all these individuals had decided to join the AAP due to their dissatisfaction with the behaviour and working style of Congress leader Bharat Bhushan Ashu.

On the land pooling scheme, Kalsi said that only Akali leaders were worried because they had always taken advantage of such schemes. Farmers have no issues since everything will happen with their consent. No land will be acquired without consent of land owner.

Farmers will receive 1,000 sq yds of residential land and 200 sq yds of commercial plots per acre. Additionally, farmers will receive an assistance amount of ?30,000 per acre annually during the three-year development phase.

The AAP leader said that this scheme was troubling land mafias and corrupt leaders because they were no longer able to reap financial benefits as they did earlier. He criticised the previous governments for benefiting land mafias through such schemes and leaving farmers to fend for themselves.