AAP to announce candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in 2-4 days, says Kejriwal

Chandigarh, March 2

The Aam Aadmi Party will announce candidates for all 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab in the next two to four days, party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal said that discussion on the candidates for the Lok Sabha polls was going on, and urged the people of the state to make the party victorious in all seats.

“In the next two to four days, the announcement will be made,” said Kejriwal while speaking to reporters in Jalandhar after virtually launching 165 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ to be set up across Punjab.

“If you ensure (the party’s) victory in all 13 seats, you will strengthen Bhagwant Mann’s hands. It is Mann alone who is fighting the Centre. It is Mann who is only fighting the governor and the BJP,” said Kejriwal who was accompanied by the Punjab Chief Minister.

Kejriwal accused the BJP-led Centre of targeting Punjab, and said he was pained when the central government rejected Punjab’s tableau for the Republic Day parade. “It is like insulting the people of Punjab,” he said.

The AAP leader said last year the Punjab government had to approach the Supreme Court to convene a budget session in the assembly after the governor refused to allow it.

The Delhi chief minister also slammed the Centre for allegedly withholding Rs 8,000 crore worth of funds from Punjab.

Kejriwal said if the Centre had released the funds, more roads would have been constructed, more hospitals and schools would have come up.

“If you give 13 seats (to the AAP in LS polls), they will become his (Mann’s) ‘13 hands’, and they will fight for you in Delhi to bring your money,” he said.

“We have done a lot of work which had not been seen in the last 75 years by the people of Punjab,” the AAP’s national convenor said.

“I am not saying all problems are solved. It will take time. But your support is needed. Like you gave 92 out of 117 seats (in Punjab assembly polls), we need the same kind of blessing in Lok Sabha polls,” he said.

Punjab CM Mann, replying to a question on the potential tie-up between erstwhile allies Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP, said the alliance was never broken.

“Did you think they are entering into an alliance again? The alliance was never really broken. But, zero plus zero is equal to zero,” he said.

Hitting out at the Akali Dal, Mann asked if the party can show its face in the villages after stitching up an alliance with the BJP even though the farmers’ issue is still to be resolved.

The SAD had quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 2020 over the issue of now-repealed farm laws.

Earlier in the day, Kejriwal launched 165 ‘Aam Aadmi Clinics’ across Punjab, taking their strength to 829 in the state.