Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday launched his statewide party campaign for the Assembly elections from Raikot with a vow to wipe out the Badal-Majithia led drugs and other mafias from the state while dismissing Arvind Kejriwal as an outsider who was only interested in looting Punjab for his own vested interests. Addressing a public rally at the Dana Mandi here, Captain Amarinder also welcomed into the Congress fold AAP ticket aspirant Harnek Singh, an IT officer who had decided to quit the party after being exposed to Kejriwal’s double standards and the AAP’s involvement in all kinds of corruption and sex scandals. A large number of Harnek’s supporters also joined the Congress on the occasion.Dismissing Kejriwal as a Haryanvi with no links to Punjab and coming here only to mislead the people of the state, Captain Amarinder pointed out that Harnek himself had been asked to pay an exorbitant amount for AAP ticket. The PPCC president came down heavily on AAP for getting outsiders in large numbers to manage their electoral show in Punjab, saying it showed that they have no support at all among the Punjabis. Captain Amarinder described AAP as a party of criminals, pointing out that more than a dozen of its MLAs in Delhi had been arrested for various crimes. They (AAP leaders) were taking money for tickets and many had been caught molesting the women of Punjab, exposing their true colours, said Captain Amarinder, urging the people to beat Kejriwal’s nefarious designs for the state.Captain Amarinder further said Kejriwal’s claims of running a clean and corruption-free party had been reduced to naught by hard facts, including the fact that he was running an NGO funded by Ford Foundation, which in turn is funded by CIA.
Referring to Kejriwal’s claim of seeing huge support for his party in Patiala, Captain Amarinder asked why the AAP leader was not ready to fight the polls against him if he was so confidence of victory.Lashing out at state minister Bikram Singh Majithia and his `toli’ of goondas for the drug menace in the state, Captain Amarinder once again swore to finish off the drug trade, which had ruined an entire generation. The Congress candidate from Majitha, Sukhjinder Raj Singh Lali Majithia, was giving the Akalis a hard run for their money, said Captain Amarinder.Besides giving jobs to the unemployed youth to wean them away from drugs, he also reiterated his promise to free the state of the Akali-controlled mafias, asserting that he would take away the Badals’ buses and permits and give them to the youth. He also hit out at the Jathedars for eating away public money, which he promised to take back from them and invest in the welfare of Punjab.The state, he lamented, was going downhill on every count under the rule of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who did not think beyond his family and who had booked lakhs of people in false cases, triggering simmering anger among the people. He, however, urged the people to vent their anger through the ballot and not resort to stone and shoe pelting.Touching upon the local problems of the area, Captain Amarinder promised that the Congress candidate Amar Singh, with his IAS experience, would address them once the party is elected to power. He also spoke about the proposed Guardians of Governance consisting of ex-servicemen, who will ensure that the welfare schemes meant for the people reach them under the next Congress government.