Arvind Kejriwal's "nefarious designs" were defeated in Punjab polls and now it is Delhi's turn to "finish him off" in the upcoming MCD elections, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said here today. Warning the people of the national capital against voting for the AAP or the BJP-SAD alliance, he said Punjab election results should be an "eye-opener" for them.
Addressing a Congress rally at Subhash Nagar in west Delhi where he delivered his speech in Punjabi to woo the local populace, Singh hit out both at the AAP and the BJP-SAD coalition alleging that both the parties failed to deliver and made false promises. "The people of Punjab have defeated Kejriwal's nefarious designs and it was now the turn of the people of Delhi to finish him off in the upcoming MCD election," Singh said.
Exhorting the people to "fight Kejriwal", Singh accused the Delhi Chief Minister of "misusing" tax payers' money to further his ambitions in Punjab. He also warned the people against trusting the BJP and alleged that the saffron party, along with its alliance partner the Shiromani Akali Dal, had "looted" Punjab, leaving a huge debt of Rs 1.82 lakh crore.
Exuding confidence that the Congress would sweep the MCD polls, to be held on April 23, under the leadership of the party's Delhi unit chief Ajay Maken, the Punjab Chief Minister called upon the people to vote for the Congress and save Delhi from the "dangerous rule" of either the AAP or the BJP.
"Victory in MCD polls would be another celebration for the Congress, whose pristine glory has to be restored," Singh said. Maken lauded the Punjab Chief Minister for "routing" and "exposing" the AAP in the Assembly polls and urged partymen to seek inspiration from the Congress' victory in that state.
"I hope we take forward in Delhi the battle he (Singh) has started from Punjab," Maken said and alleged that development has stopped in Delhi under the AAP dispensation. He also took pot-shots at Kejriwal over Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal's direction to recover Rs 97 crore from the AAP that was "splurged" by the city government on advertisements in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines.
The AAP had used the money to "spread lies" during Punjab assembly polls and the people in the national capital were "happy" to see the Kejriwal-led party's drubbing in that election, Maken claimed. He rued that the number of Delhi Transport Corporation buses has gone down and the strength of students in state-run schools has also weakened due to "poor governance" of the AAP.
Apparently referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's anti-corruption pitch, Maken sought to know why the former did not dissolve the BJP-ruled "corrupt" MCDs. Maken also hit out at both Modi and Kejriwal over the issue of sanitation workers in the national capital not getting their salaries on time.