Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann during a public meeting. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Even as the INDIA bloc partners have been mulling over seat sharing in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections, the suspense over the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) jointly contesting the upcoming General Election in Punjab continued as AAP leader and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday asserted that his party would win all the 13 parliamentary seats in the State.
“Punjab will emerge as a lighthouse by giving all the 13 seats of Lok Sabha to them [the AAP] in the coming general polls,” Mr. Mann said, speaking to journalists. He added that the State government had done marvellous work for the welfare of the people, so the masses would once again stand with them.
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“History will be created in the State by 13-0, where 13 seats will be a verdict in favour of the pro-people policies of the State government and the Opposition will be badly renounced by people for their anti-Punjab stance,” Mr. Mann said.
Mr. Mann’s remark, indicating that his party would contest all 13 parliamentary seats alone, has come at a time when the AAP and the Congress have joined hands to contest the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayoral elections, slated for January 18. According to the alliance, the Congress will contest the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, while the APP will fight for the Mayor’s post. The elections to the three posts are held every year during the five-year term of the House.
Mr. Mann also hit out at Congress leader and former Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, describing him as a “fugitive who ran away from discharging duty when he was offered the charge of Power Minister”.
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He said that now, when the State government had started a “reverse trend” by purchasing a private thermal power plant, Mr. Sidhu was making baseless and misleading statements against the AAP government.
Against the backdrop of the power plant’s purchase, Mr. Sidhu had said: “Punjab needs sustainable financial decisions, not impulsive acquisitions that deepen its debt woes. The Goindwal Power Plant, far from being an asset, seems like a white elephant and a liability for the State’s already strained finances.”
Several senior leaders of the Congress, which is the principal Opposition party in Punjab, including the Leader of the Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, have been for long critical of the alliance with the AAP, and they have been consistently asking the party’s ‘high command’ to not go ahead with the alliance with the AAP in Punjab.