Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Tuesday termed the Congress party’s decision to declare Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi its chief ministerial face for Punjab a desperate attempt to revive its sinking fortunes in the State.
The BSP supremo, who addressed a gathering in Nawansheher along with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, said, “The Congress party only remembers Dalits at the time of elections. Once the elections are over, they will sideline Mr. Charanjit Channi who is even now being remote controlled from Delhi.”
Ms. Mayawati also asked Mr. Channi to understand why he had been promoted in the party, saying the Congress party had a past history of using the Dalit community during elections. The BSP president while expressing confidence that the SAD-BSP alliance would sweep the polls said, “We all have to work unitedly to install Mr Sukhbir Badal as the next chief minister of the State.” She said she was confident that with Mr. Badal as the next chief minister special schemes would be launched to bring in all round improvement in the life of the weaker sections of society.
‘Corporate mindset’
Ms. Mayawati said while the Congress party was dying a natural death across the country and its days were numbered in Punjab, the BJP was also on its way out. “People realise the BJP has a corporate mindset and will make it meet the same fate as the Congress party”.
Hitting out at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Ms. Mayawati said people should see the poor conditions in Delhi for themselves before thinking of reposing faith in AAP in Punjab. “The AAP government had forced lakhs of people to leave Delhi during the Covid pandemic. It failed to look after its own citizens. The state of hospitals was there for all to see. Even the claims of cheap power are false and have been thoroughly exposed,” she said.
‘BSP-SAD tsunami’
Mr. Badal said after Ms. Mayawati’s visit to Punjab, the SAD-BSP tsunami was set to sweep the State. “Punjabis felt cheated by the Congress party which had done nothing and wasted five years by scrapping or curtailing all social welfare benefits given to Punjabis by Parkash Singh Badal be it scrapping blue cards or curtailing old age pension and shagun scheme,” he said.
He said similarly Punjabis could not trust AAP which had an anti-Punjab agenda. “AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal did not have any attachment with Punjab. Kejriwal has taken an anti-Punjab stance in the Supreme Court on key issues and even demanded transfer of Punjab’s river waters to Haryana and Delhi, closure of its thermal plants and registration of criminal cases against farmers who were forced to burn their paddy stubble,” he said.
