Gujarat Elections: Punjab CM steps up AAP's free power pitch, brings bunch of 25,000 'zero' electricity bills

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday brought a bunch of 25,000 "zero" electricity bills from his state and added the people of Gujarat will get similar bills if Aam Aadmi Party is voted to power in the Assembly polls.

Providing free electricity up to 300 units per month is one of the main election "guarantees" of AAP in Gujarat.

Voting for 182 Assembly seats will be held in two phases on December 1 and 5. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8.

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The campaigning for the first phase ended on Tuesday evening. Addressing a press conference here, Mann said the zero electricity bills were received by 61 lakh out of the 75 lakh households in Punjab, which is a testimony of AAP's commitment that it walks the talk.

"I have brought 25,000 zero electricity bills with the names and addresses which you can check. To date, there are around 75 lakh electric metres in Punjab. As many as 61 lakh households have received zero electricity bills. The number of such bills for December will be 67 lakh because of low consumption in winter. The same will increase to 71 lakh in January. We do what we say, and we say what we can do. The same can happen in Gujarat. We have made a promise and will deliver," he said.

Mann said the Punjab government has set up 100 mohalla clinics till August 15 and plans to establish more than 500 more such clinics by January 26.

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The AAP government in Punjab had also guaranteed to revert to the old pension scheme (OPS) and the notification for the same has been issued, Mann said.

"Not just that, our government also stopped the pension to legislatures that saved crores of rupees of public exchequer," he added.

Mann was referring to the amendment bill passed in June this year by the Legislative Assembly putting an end to multiple pensions to ex-MLAs for every term served.

"The government's work is to collect tax and give it back to the people in the form of free electricity, infrastructure, roads, colleges, and mohalla clinics. We are setting up 16 medical colleges," he said.

Mann took potshots at the "so-called Gujarat model", saying when one goes off the highways in the state, "roads exist in potholes rather than potholes in roads". With all the promises announced by the AAP, the people of Gujarat will be able to save Rs 30,000 from the very first month after the party forms a government. "6.5 crore people of Gujarat are ready for a change. The situation is the same as what I saw in Punjab (before the elections which AAP had won hands down)," he said.

Downplaying surveys predicting a certain number of seats AAP might win in Gujarat, Mann said the party "does not figure in surveys but ends up forming a government".

"Surveys are being written by people sitting at home," he added.

Mann said AAP's agenda does not match with the ruling BJP and it will be wrong to call the Kejriwal-led party a "B-team" of BJP.

"The AAP is the A team of the 130 crore people of the country," he added.