Asks who will handle these important departments while they are campaigning for their Lok Sabha Election
CHANDIGARH: After the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections, the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), Partap Singh Bajwa on Thursday ridiculed it for fielding five cabinet ministers instead of bringing new faces.
"The rapidly increasing unpopularity of the AAP can be gauged from the fact that in two years of its regime, it could not even bring new faces to contest Lok Sabha elections. Out of eight candidates it announced in the first list, five are the cabinet ministers holding significant portfolios", Bajwa added.
The Senior Congress Leader said that Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, a candidate from Amritsar has an NRI Affairs portfolio, Laljit Singh Bhullar, a Khadur Sahib candidate is a Transport Minister, Bathinda candidate Gurmeet Singh Khudian holds an Agriculture portfolio, Sangrur candidate Meet Hayer is a Sports Minister and Dr Balbir Singh, a candidate Patiala holds Health portfolio.
"These candidates are responsible for some key departments of the state. However, the AAP has not explained who is going to be in charge of these departments while they will be busy campaigning for the elections", Bajwa added.
"Perhaps, the AAP is planning to snatch these portfolios from them and that is why they are being fielded as candidates for the Lok Sabha Elections", Bajwa pointed out.
The opposition leader said that the AAP also failed to stick to its motto of giving a chance to people of humble backgrounds. Out of its eight candidates, five are cabinet ministers, one is a sitting MP from Jalandhar, Sushil Kumar Rinku and the other one is a lesser known film actor, Karamjit Anmol and last one is a perpetual defector who has travelled from Akali dal to the PPP then to Congress and finally into the AAP known for accommodating political opportunists (Gurpreet Singh GP)
"The AAP government in its two years has failed the state of Punjab on all fronts political, economical and social and this is one main reasons that fresh faces are not willing to contest on AAP symbol", Bajwa added.