New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will reach Punjab on Thursday on a two-day trip.
According to sources, Kejriwal will visit Sangrur, Mansa and Bathinda on October 28 and 29.
He will have a dialogue with farmers on Thursday and will meet businessmen on Friday.
This is Kejriwal's second visit to the northern state due for polls in 2022. On September 29, he went to Ludhiana where he met traders and businessmen.
The announcement of this trip came just a day after the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener's return from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, which too will go to the polls in 2022.
After winning 20 seats in the 2017 Assembly polls, the AAP became the principal opposition party in Punjab.
The party is banking on its Delhi model of free electricity to garner votes in the Congress-ruled state.
Punjab, which got a new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in September, will go to the polls in February-March 2022.
Rahul Gandhi met Channi along with the party's Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat and General Secretary K.C. Venugopal late on Thursday. Before that, Rahul held a separate meeting with Rawat.
According to orders, he would also be the Principal Secretary, Personnel and Vigilance, besides Financial Commissioner, Development, and Principal Secretary, Food Processing, Horticulture and Governance Reforms and Public Grievances.
Senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema on Tuesday said it was most unfortunate that even after admitting that some wrong elements wanted to defame the 'kisan sangharsh', Rajewal had neither secured an unconditional apology from those guilty of hooliganism nor subjected them to the process of law.
The Prime minister further said that the visit would be an occasion to consolidate relations with our strategic partners - Japan and Australia - and to take forward our collaboration on important global issues. In a departure statement, the Prime Minister said he will be visiting the US from September 22-25 at the invitation of President Joe Biden.
The Director-General of WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that it is an important development in support of reaching the 40 per cent vaccination target in all countries by the end of this year.
The charge made by the BJP functionary comes a day after Kejriwal during his visit to poll-bound Goa on Tuesday, announced 80 per cent reservation in private sector jobs, Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000 doles for the unemployed youth and families who have lost employment due to Covid respectively as well as setting up of a Skill university in the state.
