Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

AAP will field candidate with clean image: Khaira

- Kamaljit Singh Kamal

Though former Gurdaspur MLA Vinod Khanna was a celebrity, but he was an outsider and he rarely attended Parliament sessions.

GURDASPUR: Punjab Vidhan Sabha Opposition leader and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira said that the party will field a local leader with clean image in the upcoming Gurdaspur bypoll. He was in Girdaspur for a meeting with the party leaders and workers from Gurdaspur and Pathankot district.

Khaira pointed out that for any election, a candidate should be a local as he/she will then know the area and the needs of people better. He said that the AAP candidate will have better prospects of winning Gurdaspur bypoll as the Congress government, led by Captain Amarinder Singh, had failed to fulfil even one pre-poll promise.

Commenting on the Shiromani Alaki Dal (SAD), Khaira said that SAD will remain an illreputed party as long as Sukhbir Singh Badal and Bikram Singh Majithia are holding party reins.

He further added that all 22 MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, the district leadership and party candidates from all nine assembly constituen­cies will work together to ensure victory of the AAP candidate in the upcoming Gurdaspur bypoll.

“Captain Amarinder Singh is a defunct and absentee chief minister. He has missed many party functions, including its Rakharh Punniya event at Baba Bakala, but aiming at the upcoming election here, he presided over the Independen­ce Day function in Gurdaspur and announced many sops and projects to woo the voters,” he said.

DEMANDS AGRARIAN EMERGENCY

“Farmers are undergoing a financial crisis in Punjab, Karnatka, Maharashtr­a, Telanga, Andhra Pradesh and any other states. The Centre should declare an agrarian emergency in India,” he said.

He advised the farmers to stop taking such extreme steps. He suggested them to gherao all MLA’s and ministers of Congress, when they move in their respective constituen­cies.

Khaira termed the announceme­nt of ₹1,500 crore loan waiver for the farmers of Punjab by Captain government ‘meagre’.

He said that a report of the Reserve Bank of India stated that there is a bad debt worth ₹1,16,000 crore. “Implementa­tion of the Swaminatha­n Commission report is the ultimate solution to the problems faced by farmers,” he said.

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