People of Punjab fed up with Cong, AAP: Anurag Thakur

Chandigarh : BJP leader Anurag Thakur Monday dubbed the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party as “bad coins,” saying the people of Punjab were fed up with their “corruption.”

Thakur made the remarks while canvassing for BJP candidate from Barnala assembly segment Kewal Singh Dhillon for the upcoming bypolls.

The bypolls to the four assembly seats -- Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala -- will take place on November 20 and counting of votes will be held on November 23. “Both parties try to defraud people by making “false” promises to people,” Thakur said in Barnala He also said the BJP’s vote share increased in Punjab in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

“People of Punjab are fed up with the corrupt AAP and the Congress. Both these parties are ‘khotay sikke’. People are looking at an alternative. People see a golden chance in the BJP and if it comes (to power) in Punjab will move ahead,” the former Union minister said. Thakur accused the Bhagwant Mann government of not honouring its poll promises and failing to give Rs 1,000 per month to women, like it said it would. He said the Punjab government sent the fuel prices up by hiking the VAT and forced the industrialists to move out with its poor hold on the law and order.

“Neither the AAP government has any policy nor any clean intention. There has been daily news of crime, extortion and murder in Punjab. It matters little whether the state has a chief minister,” said the Hamirpur MP. “Neither ‘jawan’, ‘kisan’ nor ‘naujawan’ is happy with the AAP,” he said.

Thakur also claimed that the paddy procurement issue arose because of the Mann government’s mismanagement. The Punjab government has been blaming the Centre for “slow” paddy lifting and DAP fertiliser shortage.

“The government here went to sleep after being drubbed in the Lok Sabha polls. I feel Bhagwant Mann went on a leave for three months. No meeting was held,” Thakur said. “The Centre sent Rs 44,000 crore to Punjab (for crop procurement). Farmers were forced to wait for many days for crop lifting in mandis,” he claimed.