Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab unit chief and Member of Parliament (MP), Bhagwant Mann addressed a massive rally here on Wednesday in support of the party nominee from Faridkot Parliamentary constituency. The rally was preceded by an impressive road show held on the occasion, which was accorded a rousing welcome by the people from walks of life, including the youth. On the occasion, prominent leaders of the party were in attendance. He later inaugurated the party office here.Addressing a press conference after the rally, Mann said that Prof Sadhu Singh was a man who had stood by the people in the hour of crisis and given his 100 per cent mitigating their sufferings. He appealed to the people of the area to vote and support him, known for his honesty and uprightness.Answering a media query as which of the political parties was AAP’s competitive arch rival in the fray, he said that party’s electoral fight was not with any political outfit but to stamp out poverty, unemployment, menace of drugs, suicides by distressed farmers and farm labourers besides extending a helping hand to the youth trapped in foreign countries and many more issues the state was confronted with.He said that both the Congress and the SAD-BJP governments had always kept their mutual bonhomie and personal agendas ahead of the people-centric issues and concerns. Mann said that they both the players had been playing the cards to protect each other during each others’ stint in power.He said first the Badals tried to derail the investigations into the Bargari firing incident in which two people were killed and the desecration of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Bebhal Kalan. He said the report submitted by Justice Zora Singh Commission pointing accusing finger towards Badals, was allegedly handed down to the refuse bin.
This was followed by the Captain Amarinder Singh Government, which, too, played the trick to protect the people behind the acts by transferring the honest and upright specially set up SIT Officer investigating the incident, Kanwar Vijay Partap Singh. This all was to stall the investigations, saying that the people of the state had made up their opinion to give both of them a befitting reply by defeating them in the polls by giving AAP a decisive mandate, Mann said.Responding to another question over the alleged peoples’ disenchantment with erstwhile SAD-BJP and now the Congress Party, Mann said that the people had lost faith in them, stating that they had backtracked on the promises made to the people. He said that AAP was a party which had emerged out of series of struggles and that it had been welcomed as a reckoning force by the people. He said the party had been accepted as the common peoples’ party.When asked about the desertions and defections in the AAP, Mann said that those who had been into the party fold due to their petty personal ends and agenda, had left the party to chase their dreams elsewhere, saying that the party had emerged stronger after fighting certain odds. He said an organization/institution was bigger than individuals.Answering another the question on the development in the Faridkot Parliamentary constituency, Mann said that party Lok Sabha nominee Prof Sadhu Singh had been active during his 5-year stint as an MP during which the area had witnessed unprecedented development, stating that he had utilized a maximum of his MPLAD fund on the integrated development of the area which consisted of nine assembly constituencies.On the occasion, Prof Sadhu Singh said that he was in front of the people of the constituency with a report card of achievements during his stint in power. He promised to become the peoples’ voice again so that the pending projects could be pursued more forcefully.Mann also announced on the occasion that Simran Sehjpal, a prominent Pollywood star, had joined the party