CHANDIGARH: With Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids at the homes of two AAP leaders in three days, Punjab CM Bhagwant Singh Mann called out the BJP for using central agencies to begin its Punjab election campaign, saying a party unable to find 117 candidates is trying to spread fear instead of winning public support.
The Chief Minister emphasised that opposition governments are being harassed through blocked funds, Governors, ED, CBI and the Election Commission, while leaders joining the BJP emerged clean from its ‘washing machine’. He said AAP would not be intimidated, asserting that Punjabis may lose their heads but would never bow in fear, and told the BJP to prepare for 2027 by working among the people instead of relying on raids and pressure tactics.
Addressing a press conference, CM Bhagwant Singh Mann stated, "Our country is called the biggest democracy in the world, the world’s largest democracy. Here, people elect the government of their choice. It is the duty of the central government to give every state what is rightfully theirs, above politics and above party lines. But for some time now, we have been seeing that democracy is slowly being strangled. All non BJP governments are being troubled, either directly by stopping funds from the Centre or through Governors in one way or another."
Targeting the BJP, CM Bhagwant Singh Mann said, "The AAP has been specially targeted because it is a party that is growing very rapidly. It has become a national party in barely ten years. BJP thinks they can handle Congress, and they have also been hand in glove with Congress at times, but they do not want a third force to emerge.”