Kejriwal, Amarinder warm up for polls with bitter Twitter match
CHANDIGARH: Political parties in Punjab seem to be warming up for the elections with a Twitter war.
With a recent poll survey giving the Congress an edge over the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Punjab polls, Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal launched a scathing attack on Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, both on the ground and on social media. Kejriwal, who unveiled his party’s manifesto for the industry in Ludhiana, had riled Amarinder on Sunday by tweeting, “Sir, Badals closed corruption cases against u just a few months before elections. Why?” Captain returned the sting by asking the AAP chief to “set his own house in order, before he sets his sights on Punjab”.
Responding to the tweet, Kejriwal fired yet another salvo on Monday morning, alleging “drug money” of Badals was being used to fund Amarinder’s campaign.
“Sir, ppl talking in Punjab that u using (Bikram Singh) Majithia’s drug money in ur campaign. Is it true? U had saved him from CBI enquiry 3 yrs back (sic),” he tweeted. This was the Delhi chief minister’s first visit after the state vigilance bureau filed a closure report this month in the Amritsar Improvement Trust case in which Amarinder is a co-accused.
The AAP is alleging a quidpro-quo between deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal’s brother-in-law and Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia and Amarinder, as the latter had opposed the demand for a CBI probe into the drug racket after Majithia was named by arrested drug kingpin Jagdish Bhola.
Amarinder, who recently appointed a media strategist to sharpen his verbal attacks, said the Delhi CM was “hallucinating” and “seeing stars during the day”. Referring to a recent poll survey, he tweeted, “When your hopes crash from 100 to 30 & still sliding, you’re bound to hallucinate & see things that don’t exist.”He then asked Kejriwal for an open debate. Though the AAP national convener accepted it, he tried to singe Amarinder with yet another barb by suggesting the names of his four deputies in Punjab — HS Phoolka, Jarnail Singh, Bhagwant Mann and Gurpreet Ghuggi.