Chandigarh: AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Monday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of threatening to topple the Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab after the Lok Sabha polls to claim that the country is under dictatorship.
Union Minister Shah at a poll rally in Ludhiana on Sunday asked people to ensure victory of the BJP’s Lok Sabha candidates in Punjab and said that “the Bhagwant Mann government will not last long after the BJP’s victory”.
On Monday, Kejriwal, while addressing a gathering of traders in Amritsar, said, “Have you heard Amit Shah’s statement? He gave a threat. Initially, he abused Punjabis a lot. He issued a threat that after June 4, the Punjab government will be toppled. Bhagwant Mann will no longer remain the chief minister after June 4.”
“We have 92 seats (MLAs). How can you topple (government)? There is a dictatorship (in the country),” Kejriwal said and alleged that the BJP leaders were openly saying that they would threaten the legislators with the CBI and the ED and then “buy” them.
“I want to tell him (Shah)… do threaten the people of Punjab. Otherwise, they will make it difficult for you to enter Punjab,” the Delhi chief minister added.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann slammed Shah over his remarks and said, “Do you have the courage to topple the government? We have 92 seats. They are threatening us. Are you coming (here) to seek votes or threaten to topple the government?”
In Amritsar, Kejriwal lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of keeping mum on the issues of unemployment and inflation.
“He (Modi) has been saying that the INDIA bloc will snatch (people’s) buffaloes and ‘mangalsutras’,” Kejriwal said and asked the prime minister to speak about people’s problems.
“He does not have solutions to people’s problems. It seems he is living in another world,” the Delhi chief minister said.
Hitting out at the BJP over the party’s Puri Lok Sabha candidate Sambit Patra’s ‘Lord Jagannath’ remark, he said, “Sambit Patra says Lord Jagannath is Modi’s ‘bhakt’.” Patra had later clarified that it was a slip of tongue and he wanted to mean that the prime minister was an ardent devotee of Lord Jagannath.
Kejriwal slammed the BJP-led Centre for withholding Rs 9,000 crore of Punjab’s share of funds including Rs 5,500 crore of rural development fund. “They are indulging in ‘gundagardi’ (hooliganism) and there is dictatorship. There should be no politics over development,” he said.
“This is not their money. It is the money of the people of Punjab,” he said.
The Delhi chief minister claimed that he was arrested so that he could not campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.
Kejriwal was arrested in a money laundering case linked to the alleged Delhi excise policy scam in March and is currently out on interim bail till June 1.
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