A day after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, accompanied the AAP chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to the poll-bound State of Chhattisgarh, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) on August 20 accused Mr. Mann of neglecting the people of Punjab at the time when the State was reeling under floods.
BJP’s national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said “It is extremely unfortunate that at a time when Punjab is reeling under floods and had suffered massive devastation, Mr. Mann is busy in political rallies in poll-bound States,” he said in a statement.
Hitting out at the Punjab Chief Minister for attending an election rally at Raipur in Chhattisgarh on August 19, Mr. Shergill said “Punjab needs a Chief Minister and not a campaign Minister. Mr. Mann, by consistently touring other states for political purposes, is completely ignoring the interests of Punjab. Mr. Mann has only one agenda to fulfil the political ambitions of Arvind Kejriwal, who takes him [Mann] along with him to poll-bound States to showcase the ‘fake’ Punjab model to get political mileage,” he said.
Mr. Mann had held joint rallies with Mr. Kejriwal in Raipur (Chhattisgarh) on March 5, Sri Ganganagar (Rajasthan) on June 18, Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh) on July 1, and Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh) on July 2. “In the wake of the fact that on July 17, when 19 out of 23 districts of Punjab were reeling under floods, showing scant regard towards the plight of the people, Mr. Mann was enjoying a dinner of Opposition leaders in Bengaluru. The very next day, he was present at the Opposition parties meeting in Bengaluru,” said the BJP spokesperson, terming the actions of the Punjab Chief Minister as “highly insensitive and irresponsible”.
In Chhattisgarh, addressing a town hall meeting in the run-up to the Assembly election, Mr. Mann had launched an attack on the BJP, terming it a party of ‘jumlas’ (rhetoric).
