Ahead of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Chandigarh, the AAP and the ruling Congress were on Monday embroiled in a sharp exchange of words surrounding denial of permission to Mr. Kejriwal’s ‘press conference’.
AAP Punjab president Bhagwant Mann said Mr. Kejriwal would visit Chandigarh on June 29, where he would announce a road map for Punjab’s development in the run-up to the Assembly polls, due early next year.
Mr. Mann said Mr. Kejriwal would be making ‘big announcements’ about Punjab. “Mr. Kejriwal will announce benefits for the people of Punjab on the lines of unlimited facilities being provided to the people of Delhi. He could also promise to provide free electricity to the people of Punjab and to save them from the costly electricity at present,” said Mr. Mann.
Mr. Mann said that in Punjab every section of society was suffering due to inflation, but women were the worst affected. “Mr. Kejriwal would release his plan to provide more facilities to women and arrangements for their savings. The Amarinder Singh-led Congress government of Punjab had failed to provide facilities to the people due to which every section was feeling cheated. At present paddy sowing was in full swing but due to non-availability of electricity farmers are not able to sow paddy properly. Kejriwal will also present his formula for overcoming the power crisis in Punjab,” he added.
Mr. Mann alleged that the Punjab government refused permission for Mr. Kejriwal’s press conference at Punjab Bhawan. “Kejriwal is coming to expose the lies of Captain Amarinder Singh’s government before the people of Punjab, and this has scared the government,” he said.
CM’s statement
However, Capt. Singh, through the official Twitter handle of the Chief Minister’s Office, said the allegation of denying permission to press conference was “totally not true. We let @ArvindKejriwal address a rally here just few days back so why should we stop him now from having a press conf. If he wants I’d be happy to arrange his lunch too. @AamAadmiParty just wants to do drama even if it means lying.”
