“Where Is Your Punjabi CM,” Punjab Congress Asks Kejriwal, Tells AAP Leader To Stop Befooling People With Blatant Lies
Chandigarh: Amid the continuing ad-hoc statements of various Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders on chief ministerial and deputy chief minister’s posts, the Punjab Congress on Monday asked Arvind Kejriwal to come out with the name of even one prospective Punjabi chief minister from his party. Reacting to reports citing an AAP leader saying that the party will have a Punjabi chief minister in the state, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) exhorted Kejriwal to stop trying to befool the people of Punjab with such bogus statements. They have no leaders, leave alone Punjabi or Dalit leaders, to fill up the top slots of the government in the vain hope of coming to power in the state, a PPCC statement said, taking a dig at Kejriwal and his colleagues for their false promises of installing a Punjabi CM and a Dalit deputy CM if elected to power. “Stop playing with the sentiments of the people,” PPCC leaders Rana KP Singh, Gur Iqbal Kaur and Tarlochan Singh said, adding that the people of Punjab don’t need casteist politics but want a healthy and sincere political dispensation to tide them through the multitude of crises they are facing. Referring to the large-scale dissidence in the party amid `tickets for sale’ allegations gripping AAP, the PPCC leaders asked Kejriwal to take some time out from his `busy’ schedule (in a reference to the fact that he left his Punjab campaign mid way citing important work in Delhi) to put his house in order. “The way things are going, you’ll be left with nobody to even allocate tickets,” said the Punjab Congress leaders, adding that a party bereft of any base or leadership in Punjab should not make such statements that are clearly aimed at befooling the people. Dismissing as mere rhetoric the party’s statements on CM and deputy CM posts, as well as on a host of other vital issues, they said the only thing Kejriwal and his team are concerned about is winning the Punjab Assembly polls by hook or by crook, stooping to any depth for that purpose. The PPCC leaders said Kejriwal clearly had a penchant for lying, with even his Twitter followers complaining about his tendency to backtrack on his statements on his handle. His habit of putting his foot in his mouth, and speaking without thinking, is evident in virtually every statement of his, they said, pointing out that the AAP leader had retracted on his statement even on a critical issue like SYL, which is so close to the hearts of the people of Punjab. Given his `bhagoda’ tendency, Kejriwal will run away from his promises at the first opportunity, said the PPCC leaders, reiterating that AAP had no credible standing to fight the Punjab elections.
