Former Union Minister and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) candidate for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat Harmohan Dhawan on Friday claimed that this time people will not be swayed by ‘ jhumlas ’ and will oust the Bharatiya Janata Party from power.
He alleged that several promises which the BJP had made during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls remained unfulfilled.
“There is no Modi factor unlike in 2014. At that time, I supported Narendra Modi as he ignited hope among people and made various promises, but failed to deliver on ground,” 71-year-old Dhawan said.
“All the promises – bringing back black money, crediting every citizen’s account with ₹15 lakh, creating two crore jobs every year, scrapping Article 370, having Uniform Civil Code and building Ram temple in Ayodhya – were reduced to jhumlas ,” Mr. Dhawan told PTI .
He accused the BJP of avoiding the real issues. “They do not talk about real issues – unemployment or farmers’ problems. They came to power once by giving false hope of ‘ acche din ’ [good days], but people are not going to fall for their false promises again,” the AAP leader claimed.
Mr. Dhawan is pitted against the BJP’s sitting MP Kirron Kher and former four-time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal. Mr. Dhawan had joined the BJP before the last parliamentary elections, but was not given the ticket from here this time. Thereafter, he had a strained relationship with local leaders of the saffron party and joined the AAP six months ago.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, actor Gul Panag had unsuccessfully contested from Chandigarh on AAP ticket. Mr. Dhawan, who has been doing door-to-door campaigning, said the AAP will provide an alternative to the BJP and the Congress.
“I meet people, interact with them and listen to what they have to say. People are fed up with both Bansal and Kirron Kher. Bansal has been a four-time MP and a Union Minister, but he failed to fulfil his promises,” he said.
“People are impressed with the style of functioning of Arvind Kejriwalji. His focus has been on development and good governance. Today, Delhi’s development model is being praised around the world. The AAP government has changed the shape of Delhi’s schools and hospitals,” he said.
The former Union Minister was elected to the Parliament in 1989 and became the Union Minister for Civil Aviation.
“When I was an MP, I got a medical college and hospital here, slum dwellers were rehabilitated. Punjab pattern pay-scales, which had been stuck for years, were approved for employees. People still remember all these things,” he said.
