Mann challenges Sukhbir to contest polls from Dhuri

Wednesday, 15/07/2015

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SANGRUR: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member of Parliament ( MP) Bhagwant Mann, on Tuesday, challenged deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, to contest from Dhuri assembly constituency in the upcoming 2017 assembly election, and check the ground reality for himself. “Sukhbir Badal is most welcome to contest from here as AAP is not a water bubble, it’s like a hot air balloon,” he said.

Aam Aadmi Party member of Parliament Bhagwant Mann during a meeting with officials of various government departments in Sangrur on Tuesday.

Mann, as chairperson of the district-level vigilance and monitoring committee, reviewed the progress of different centrallysponsored schemes with various government departments. He was accompanied by Sangrur deputy commissioner Arshdeep Singh Thind.

Addressing a press conference, he said, “AAP would concentrate on Punjab, as in the last Lok Sabha elections, it was Punjab which elected four MPs and saved AAP from being eliminated from the political map at the national level.” Replying to a question, he said, on his recent visits to Germany and Canada, he found that nonresident Indians (NRIs) showed interest in and willingness to support AAP in the 2017 assembly election.

Mann disclosed that party observers have been deployed from within Punjab and Delhi to study ground realities and prepare an election strategy for 2017. The party will follow Delhistyle winning combination in the Punjab election campaign. “People of Punjab are fed up with the Badals, who are ruling only to perpetuate their own vested interests. The state has to be freed of corruption, goonda raj and mafia gangs,” he said.

On contesting 2017 election for Punjab Vidhan Sabha, he said, “I’ll abide by the orders of the party.” Regarding the controversy over removal of Sucha Singh Chhotepur as AAP state convener, Mann said Chhotepur was neither removed nor given extension as convener.

As chairman of the Punjab campaign committee, Mann said he would campaign in the whole of Punjab and even outside India as well.

When asked about the differences between the four AAP MPs, Mann said there could be differences of opinion in a democratic system. He denied any rift in the party.

He also said, “All four of us would meet before monsoon session of Parliament and chalk out a future strategy for the upcoming session.”