Chandigarh, September 29
With the arrest of its MLA Sukhpal Khaira, Punjab Congress has found a firm ground in opposing any alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
Throwing weight behind Khaira, the Congress said it would intensify its agitation against CM Bhagwant Mann-led government on the ‘political vendetta’ unleashed against the leader. Party leaders claimed that they have a hunch that the Vigilance Bureau had been ‘directed to look for disproportionate assets cases’ against other top party leaders.
PPCC chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said he had already got green signal from the party high command to fight against ‘political vendetta’. Warring said the incident had been brought to the notice of the AICC president.
Meanwhile, the PPCC has convened a meeting of its leaders to chalk out the strategy to take on the AAP government. Already, the party is organising dharnas on drug menace across the state.
Party leaders today were quick to point out that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was stating that the AAP was committed to the INDIA alliance and will not break away from it. But at the same time Kejriwal pointed out that the AAP government in Punjab was committed to ending the drug menace in the state. “I am not commenting on any particular incident since the details are not with me,” Kejriwal was heard stating while commenting on Khaira’s arrest.
Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa said the state government had converted Punjab into an absolute police state, where the voice of dissent was being ‘strangulated’. “Recently, Khaira had sought clarification from AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha about how he managed to gift a 4-carat diamond ring to his wife as his income according to 2020-21 ITR was just Rs 2.44 lakh. Instead of being accountable, the AAP government attempted to suppress his voice,” Bajwa said in a statement on X.
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