CHANDIGARH: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament (MP) and Punjab unit chief Bhagwant Mann has said that the candidates fielded by both the parties in the Bathinda and Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituencies after much hair-splitting has brought forth the bonhomie between both of them.
In a statement issued from party headquarters in Chandigarh, Mann said that Captain Amarinder Singh had proved the fact beyond doubts that he had played the match with the spirit they played in 2017 by fielding weak candidates from the Ferozepur, Bathinda and Patiala constituencies. By doing so, Captain had proved the mutual agreed upon one-point agenda – to stay by each others’ sides to stay put in the power corridor, Mann said.
Reliving the friendly the Badals played doing the 2017 Assembly elections, Mann said by fielding their candidates in the Patiala, Lambhi and Jalalabad constituencies to ensure each others’ winnability by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party candidates there. This time, both had repeated the same formula to stay in power. He challenged that had Captain not contested election from Lambhi and fielded Ravneet Singh Bittu from Jalalabad, both the Badals would not have been able to make it to the Assembly.
Accusing them both of conniving with each other to stay relevant in power, Mann said that under the well-planned design, Badals had pitched weak candidate from Patiala constituency to seal the deal with Captain.
Mann said these were not allegations leveled by the AAP but one could find it written on the wall. These allegations were ratified by the candidates of the SAD and Congress, including SAD nominee for the Lok Sabha elections, Sher Singh Ghubaiya and other leaders.
Mann said that the Congress Party, under the dubious arrangement, fielded a young, non-serious and motor-mouthed candidate from Bathinda constituency, Raja Warring, and Sher Singh Ghubaiya, who recently joined the party fold from Ferozepur amid raging opposition from the local party leaders, thereby clearing the deck for the Badal family to register a comfortable win in the election, he said. He said that the people had come to learn their game plan and won’t be taken in for a ride by them.
The AAP leader further said that the Badals had been procrastinating on declaring their party candidates from both the constituencies – Ferozepur and Bathinda, an arrangement, which spoke volumes of the much-hyped bonhomie between the two of them. The Congress Party had cleared the roadblocks for win of the SAD-fielded candidates from the said constituencies, Mann said.