Chandigarh, May 3 (PTI) Punjab BJP in-charge Vijay Rupani on Wednesday said that only BJP can set the state on path of progress as he campaigned for the party for the upcoming Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll.
Rupani, a former Gujarat chief minister, blamed Congress for the “lack of development” in the constituency and the AAP for a “deteriorating” law and order in the state.
The Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, scheduled to take place on May 10, was necessitated after the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January this year.
The constituency is considered to be the stronghold of Congress which has remained undefeated here since 1999.
The reserved constituency will witness a four-cornered contest with the Congress, AAP, SAD-BSP, and BJP vying for victory.
BJP has fielded Inder Iqbal Singh Atwal, a Dalit Sikh, who quit the Shiromani Akali Dal to join the saffron party. Atwal is the son of former Punjab Vidhan Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal.
The BJP is contesting its first Lok Sabha poll on its own in Punjab after the Shiromani Akali Dal broke ties with it in 2020.
The Congress has fielded Karamjit Kaur, the wife of late Santokh Chaudhary, while the AAP’s nominee is former MLA Sushil Rinku, who left Congress to join the ruling AAP in Punjab.
The BSP-backed SAD nominee is two-time legislator Sukhwinder Kumar Sukhi.
Rupani claimed that people of Jalandhar feel no development took place in the constituency in the last nine years when it was represented by the Congress MP.
Slamming the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab, Rupani said people feel cheated by the AAP, which made them “false promises” and got a huge mandate.
Rupani alleged that law and order has completely collapsed in the state. “Nobody feels safe here and that is why they are upset with the AAP.” The BJP leader also claimed that people of Punjab want the law and order situation to become better like it is in the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh.
“We have proved that wherever there’s a BJP government, development follows,” Rupani said.
People now realise that it is the BJP which can put Punjab on the path of progress, Rupani told PTI, and added that AAP will taste defeat from the Jalandhar bypoll, just as it did in the Sangrur Lok Sabha bypoll last year.
The BJP leader said that there was no possibility of alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal again in future and that BJP will fight alone in the state.
SAD broke ties with the BJP in 2020 over the now repealed farm laws.
SAD used to fight on 94 seats while the BJP on 23 seats in the 117-assembly, in a seat arrangement agreed upon by the two parties. PTI CHS SUN VN VN VN
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
