By PTI
CHANDIGARH: The Aam Aadmi Party on Friday announced candidates from the remaining four Punjab Assembly constituencies.
With this, the party has declared candidates on all 117 Assembly seats in the state.
According to the list, Amit Singh Manto will contest from Sujanpur, Manjinder Singh Lalpura from Khadoor Sahib, KNS Kang from Dakha and Brindar Kumar Goyal from Lehragaga.
Voting for Punjab’s 117 Assembly seats is scheduled for February 20 and the counting will take place on March 10.
Senior Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday said the party will soon release its election manifesto for next month’s state Assembly polls and said the focus in it will be on agriculture, employment for youth, trade and industry.
“We will consider expectations of all sections of society while preparing the manifesto of the Congress Party for the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections,” said Bajwa, who is the chairman of the Punjab Congress manifesto committee.
The focus will be on the state’s agriculture sector, he said while emphasising on bringing the second green revolution in the state.
“As former chief minister Partap Singh Kairon had brought prosperity to Punjab by preparing the ground for the green revolution under the leadership of former Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress will focus on the needs of the agriculture sector while drafting the manifesto,” said Bajwa.
He said farmers will be encouraged for crop diversification while coming out of the wheat-paddy cycle.
“There is a need to bring the second green revolution in the state. There is a need to come out of the wheat-paddy cycle,” Bajwa said.
He further said the Congress will also focus on youth and women of the state and giving employment to the youth will be the second biggest priority of the Congress.
It is very important to stop the brain drain and save Punjab, he said adding, “The Congress has always empowered the women and it is due to policies of the Congress Party that today women are actively taking part in civil services.”
Bajwa also talked about giving subsidy to small and media enterprises for boosting industrial development and creating a level-playing field as he pointed out that Punjab is a landlocked state.
He said special attention will be given to sports and the state’s culture.
He said separate meetings have also been held by the manifesto committee with the chief minister and the Punjab Congress president.
He said the party’s manifesto will be presented soon.
“We are not preparing the manifesto by just sitting in the four walls. The manifesto is being prepared by consulting residents of the state and I assure that the Congress manifesto will address expectations of all sections of society,” Bajwa said.
Meanwhile, former AAP leader Aadarsh Shastri slammed AAP’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that he had not fulfilled the promises he made to people of Delhi.
Now, he is announcing “fake” guarantees in Punjab, he alleged.
“The Kejriwal government has failed to give an allowance of Rs 100 to the Delhi-based women and here he is making a fake promise to give Rs 1,000 to women in Punjab,” he said.
Under fire from its political rivals over the ED raids, the Congress in Punjab has launched a campaign on social media stating that the entire state is with Charanjit Singh Channi and blaming the BJP-led Centre for trying to defame Punjab’s first chief minister from the scheduled caste community.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday had said it seized cash amounting to over Rs 10 crore, including about Rs 8 crore from a relative of Channi, during raids conducted in connection with an anti-money laundering investigation against illegal sand mining operations in the poll-bound state.
It had also said, “incriminating” documents related to “illegal” sand mining and property transactions, mobile phones, gold worth more than Rs 21 lakh and a Rolex watch worth Rs 12 lakh were also seized during the searches that ended on Wednesday.
The Punjab Congress has come out with a social media campaign PunjabChanniDeNaalHai’ and has posted video clips of several persons coming out in support of Chief Minister Channi on its Facebook page.
Channi was appointed as the chief minister of Punjab last September after the Congress made Amarinder Singh resign from the post.
Opposition parties in Punjab have asked the Congress to explain the money recovered from the premises of Channi’s nephew during the ED raids, with BJP’s state unit dubbing the ruling party as “GhotalebajCongress’ and CongressChor’.
Under the Punjab Congress social media campaign, party MLA Barindermeet Singh Pahra could be heard in a video lashing out at the BJP and accusing it of trying to defame Channi under a “well-planned conspiracy.”
He alleged that the Centre was misusing the ED against its political opponents.
A person from Sri Hargobindpur while criticising the Centre for the ED raids claimed that entire Punjab was with Channi.
Several such videos supporting Channi were uploaded on the Facebook page of the Punjab Congress.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been attacking Channi ever since the ED carried out the raids.
AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had on Wednesday said Channi is not a common man but a “dishonest man” as he sought to corner the Congress leader over the raids.
Punjab BJP chief Ashwani Sharma on Thursday had said that the recovery of crores of rupees from Channi’s nephew’s premises has “busted his (chief minister) false image of a humble common man.”
Former Union minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal had on Thursday said that Channi’s family members had “minted crore of rupees through illegal sand mining during his 111-day stint as the CM”.
Channi on Wednesday had accused the BJP-led central government of hatching a conspiracy to trap him in the case in which raids were conducted by the ED.
The Congress on Thursday had complained to the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking stern action against the ED officials for carrying out “illegal and malafide” raids to defame Channi and the incumbent state government.
