The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday said the BJP has turned politics into a marketplace where loyalty, ideology and public mandate are traded for power, using opposition leaders as disposable pawns to advance its political interests.
Citing leaders such as Sunil Jakhar and Ravneet Singh Bittu as examples of the BJP’s “use and throw” culture, senior AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said the saffron party lures opposition faces to manufacture an illusion of political growth in Punjab, only to marginalise them once their usefulness expires.
The senior AAP leader asserted that Punjab’s politically conscious electorate can see through the BJP’s desperate attempts to buy a foothold in the state and will not be misled by the party’s efforts to hide its anti-Punjab agenda behind imported faces from other parties.
Senior AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema said, “BJP treats turncoat politicians as disposable commodities to satisfy its hunger for power. Recent political shifts reveal the BJP’s complete disregard for the Punjab leaders it inherits, using them strictly for short-term gains before tossing them aside.”
Taking aim at the BJP’s political functioning, the Cabinet Minister said, “BJP has reduced politics to a marketplace of opportunism, and leaders like Ravneet Singh Bittu and Sunil Jakhar are the perfect and most recent examples of BJP’s strategy of ‘use and throw’ political opportunists of opposition parties.
BJP has absolutely no respect for ideology, loyalty, or the mandate of the people. They systematically target opposition leaders, lure them to switch sides to create a false narrative of growth in Punjab, and once their immediate utility is over, they ruthlessly marginalize them.”
He further stated, “By embracing the BJP, these leaders have not only compromised the interests of Punjab but have willingly walked into a political trap. BJP’s standard operating procedure is to exploit opposition faces to shield itself from public anger, only to discard them when they are no longer useful.”
Emphasising that the people of Punjab can clearly see through the BJP’s attempts to expand its footprint in the state through compromised leaders, Harpal Singh Cheema said the party’s anti-Punjab stance cannot be hidden behind the induction of a few opportunistic faces.
“The brave and politically conscious electorate of Punjab will never forgive those who betray the state’s interests, especially its farmers and youth, just to please their new masters in BJP,” he said. Reaffirming AAP’s commitment to the people of Punjab, Harpal Singh Cheema said that while the BJP relies on political engineering and deception, the AAP led by Arvind Kejriwal and the Punjab Government led by CM Bhagwant Singh Mann will continue to fight for the rights, dignity and prosperity of every Punjabi.