AAP fallen back on compromised CM candidate: Sukhbir Badal
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Jan, 2022 12:36 PM
Chandigarh, Jan 18 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had fallen back on compromised candidate Bhagwant Mann as no one was ready to lead the party in Punjab.
Terming the nomination of Mann as a stage managed non-event, the SAD President said AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal never wanted to make Mann the face of the party in Punjab.
"He has been saying so at Mann's face while asserting that the party was looking for a capable candidate. It is also a fact that AAP sounded off a number of prospective candidates but each and every one of them refused to lead the party. This is why the responsibility has been thrust on Bhagwant after a make belief survey," he said in a statement.
Asserting that making Mann the face of the party reflected the complete bankruptcy of AAP, Sukhbir Badal said: "A desperate public relation exercise is underway to wash away Mann's omissions and commissions and project him as a leader who can take on the mantle of chief minister even though his wayward and irresponsible conduct is well known to each and everyone."
He also asked Kejriwal to tell Punjabis whom they should repose their trust in now.
"AAP has led a very public campaign urging Punjabis to repose their trust in Kejriwal since more than one year. During this same period Kejriwal has asserted that Mann is not capable of holding this post.
"Now when AAP has exhausted all options and chosen Mann to lead the party in Punjab, it needs to explain why Punjabis should trust a leader who Kejriwal refused to endorse for more than one year. Kejriwal cannot take Punjabis to be so naive as to approve his rubber stamped candidate.
"They need strong and decisive leadership as well a leader with a proven track record of conducting swift development as well as ensuring law and order and peace and communal harmony in this border state. Mann does not fit this bill," Sukhbir Badal added.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly discriminating against teachers and forcing them to come to the streets, and asked state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla not to behave in an 'arrogant' and 'dictatorial' manner and resolve the grievances of government school teachers immediately.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
"There have been several unfounded media reports that have peddled misinformation among the masses regarding this exercise of national importance," a ministry statement said, adding that the total number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country so far stand at 21,85,46,667.
The Congress said that it was "appropriate for our initial statement to note that the intrusion by Israeli forces into the Holy Al Aqsa mosque during Ramzan prayers had ruptured the delicate peace in the region".
