Bathinda: Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that his party MP Bhagwant Mann will contest against Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal from his Jalalabad constituency in Fazilka district in the forthcoming assembly elections. Kejriwal said this during a rally in Jalalabad, publicly asking Sangrur MP and comedian Bhagwant Mann to contest against Sukhbir.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) responded by saying that Kejriwal should have himself contested against Sukhbir. Kejriwal also asked Mann to follow Sukhbir if the SAD chief decided to fight the polls from any other seat instead of Jalalabad. Mann had won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Sangrur with the highest margin in Punjab, routing SAD's Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa by 211,000 votes. Mann, who has often expressed his desire to take on Sukhbir politically, immediately accepted the challenge.
“I will follow my leader Arvind Kejriwal's words. He had dared to take on three-time chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, and defeated her. I will make history by defeating Sukhbir with the help of common people. Sukhbir will have to pay for looting Punjab,” he said.
Kejriwal said, “The people have asked Bhagwant to contest against Sukhbir. But it will not be his election. It will be the election of every Punjabi. As AAP has no money and much manpower to contest the elections, the people should contribute to the party's kitty and every volunteer should take along 100 workers to defeat anti-people SAD-BJP combine and Congress.”
Kuldeep Kaur Tohra, a Congress rebel who contested the Khadoor Sahib by-poll at a time when the party stayed away from the contest, has made it to the fifth list of the Aam Aadmi Party. Daughter of Akali stalwart Panth Rattan late Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Kuldeep will contest from Sanaur, and is the only woman on the list along with 11 men.
