Headlines
Delhi polls: AAP MPs raise Punjab's drugs menace to prevent redux
New Delhi, Feb 1
They are just four of them
but the AAP quartet in parliament is determined to make Punjab's
festering problem of drugs an issue for the Delhi assembly polls with an
eye on the large Punjabi population in the national capital - and to
prevent the worrying problem from spilling over into Delhi.
The
four AAP MPs - Bhagwant Mann, Dharam Vira Gandhi, Harinder Singh Khalsa
and Sadhu Singh - are especially focussing on four assembly seats that
predominantly account for Punjabi and Sikh voters. The Shiromani Akali
Dal (SAD) has also fielded its candidates for these seats as part of its
poll alliance with the BJP in Delhi.
"Our Delhi poll agenda is
clear; it is for the people to decide now. For Punjabis (living in
Delhi) it is important to remember that the SAD-BJP regime in Punjab has
devastated the youth by making a continuous inflow of drugs into the
state. One of its cabinet ministers has been found to be involved in
it," AAP MP from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann told IANS.
He was
referring to Punjab cabinet minister and SAD leader Bikram Singh
Majithia's name recently surfacing in money laundering through drug
trade. The Enforcement Directorate has also questioned him in the case.
Mann
said: "We are trying to make them (Punjabi voters) understand that they
will face the same problem here if they allow the BJP-SAD alliance to
come to power in Delhi. They will also make Delhi like Punjab (in terms
of drug trade)."
Delhi goes to the polls Feb 7 and the results will
be declared Feb 10. The four seats the SAD is contesting are Rajouri
Garden, Kalkaji, Shahdara and Hari Nagar. In the 2013 polls, the SAD won
only from Kalkaji.
"Their performance in Punjab is in front of the people of Delhi," AAP MP from Patiala Dharmveer Gandhi told IANS.
"Delhi
Punjabis are well aware of the fact that the BJP-SAD rule will give
them only drugs. We are telling the same to the people," he added.
AAP
believes that Punjabi voters in Delhi are always a decisive factor in
any elections and the party has thus asked its four MPs to campaign in
Delhi. All of them have been campaigning in the city in
Punjabi-dominated areas for the past two weeks.
Another AAP leader said the current situation in Punjab would help them in the four seats, which have a majority of Sikh voters.
He
claimed that SAD already seems to have conceded defeat as it is
contesting on the BJP symbol in three constituencies. Only in Rajouri
Garden, it is fighting on its own symbol.
(Alok Singh can be contacted at [email protected])