Chandigarh/Ludhiana: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) sounded the bugle for its Punjab election campaign on Saturday, with chief minister Bhagwant Mann releasing a four-page “election pamphlet” seeking a second term and warning voters that a change in govt could stop key welfare schemes, including free electricity and financial assistance for women.Released in Ludhiana a day before AAP’s statewide door-to-door campaign, the pamphlet asked voters whether they were considering Congress, Akali Dal or BJP and warned that electing them could be “dangerous” for families. It carried the slogan, “Punjab Da Iko Naara, Bhagwant Mann Dubara.”It claimed that an opposition party’s govt would end the 300-unit free power scheme, financial assistance for women, Aam Aadmi Clinics, free private hospital treatment cards of up to Rs 10 lakh, daytime farm power and senior citizens’ pensions. It also claimed that govt schools would suffer and bribes could return to govt recruitment.Mann said AAP workers would distribute the pamphlet door-to-door and ask people to assess the govt’s record. He also cited the closure of 19 toll plazas, the Sadak Surakhya Force, which he said had saved more than 2,700 lives, purchase of the Goindwal Sahib thermal plant and expansion of canal-water supply. “Those who were part of govts under which the drug menace flourished are now attempting to portray themselves as its solution,” Mann said, targeting the BJP’s proposed ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’. He questioned the BJP’s record during the 2007-17 SAD-BJP govt and referred to drug seizures at Gujarat’s Mundra port.He said around 14,000 km of pipelines had been laid for water distribution in Punjab and AAP govt had strengthened the power sector while continuing to provide 300 free units to eligible households. “We will go to the people and tell them what we have done, what we did beyond our guarantees, and then ask them what more they want us to do,” Mann said.The pamphlet also alleged that a BJP-SAD alliance had been finalised, claiming its terms included reintroduction of the three farm laws, diversion of Punjab’s river waters to Haryana and Rajasthan, and central control over Chandigarh and Panjab University. Mann was joined by AAP Punjab in-charge Manish Sisodia, state president Aman Arora, cabinet minister Harpal Singh Cheema and working president Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi.Pamphlet also calls Mann ‘kattar imandar’The pamphlet also claimed that CM Mann’s govt had ensured transparent recruitment and described him as “kattar imandar” (fiercely honest). In the past, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had used the term to describe himself. The pamphlet urged voters to “look beyond party lines” and focus on their families.
