Ahead of Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Chandigarh, AAP and the ruling Congress were on Monday embroiled in a sharp exchange of words over 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 roadmap for the State’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,” he said.
Mr. Mann said in Punjab every section of society was suffering due to inflation, but women were the worst affected.
‘More facilities’
“Mr. Kejriwal would release his plan to provide more facilities to women and arrangements for their savings. The government had failed to provide facilities to the people due to which every section was feeling cheated. At present paddy sowing is in full swing but due to non-availability of electricity, farmers are not able to do so properly. Mr. 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. “Mr. Kejriwal is coming to expose the lies of Captain Amarinder Singh’s government, and this has scared the government,” he said.
However, Capt. Singh, through the official Twitter handle of the Chief Minister’s Office, said the allegation of denying permission to the 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.”
