Hitting out at the ruling AAP in the state and its INDIA partner Congress over the ‘friendly fight’ in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on March 31 said the grand old party should come clean on whether it was standing with the people of Punjab or supporting the ‘corrupt’ Arvind Kejriwal.
Speaking to ANI on Sunday, SAD MP said, “I call on the Punjab Congress to clear its stand. They should clarify whether they were standing with the people of Punjab or supporting a corrupt (Delhi chief minister and AAP national convenor) Kejriwal.”
Scoffing at the Maha Rally of the AAP and its partners in the INDIA bloc at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, Kaur said all leaders in the Opposition alliance gathered to pledge support to a leader, who dodged repeated summons by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) in connection with the excise policy case before being arrested.
“Despite repeated summons, Arvind Kejriwal did not appear before the ED. The court has refused to grant him bail. His ministers (Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain) have been languishing in jail over the last one-and-a-half years. They indulged in a similar liquor scam in Punjab as well,” Kaur added.
Despite the AAP and the Congress failing to clinch a seat-sharing deal for the Lok Sabha polls in Punjab, she claimed that the two parties are together in the state and the people are being ‘misled’ for the sake of votes.
“The people of Punjab are ready to ready to give them a befitting reply this time,” the SAD lawmaker said.
Also hitting out at the BJP over accepting deserters from rival camps, especially the grand old party, she called them the “new Congress”.
“The BJP is the new Congress. Leaders, who were with the Congress till the other day, switched over to the BJP and tickets to contest the Lok Sabha elections. The SAD, on the other hand, are not raiding rival camps and will fight the polls on its ideology and farmers’ interests,” she added.
Earlier in the day, INDIA leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, NC patriarch Farooq Abdullah, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, and Jharkhand CM Champai Soren, among others, headlined the mega show of strength for the embattled Kejriwal at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan.
Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on March 21 and is currently in the custody of the central agency till April 1.
(With inputs from ANI)
