Malerkotla, August 8
AICC General Secretary in charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel today said that people of Punjab were eagerly waiting to give full mandate to the Congress in the ensuing elections which may be held in February 2027 or November this year. He said, after touring 18 districts across Punjab, he had noticed overwhelming enthusiasm among the people for the Congress as they were fed up with the Aam Aadmi Party government which had completely destroyed Punjab.
Speaking during the ‘Harr booth, Congress Mazboot’ programme here today, Baghel specially praised the sacred soil of Malerkotla, recalling how in 1705, the then Nawab had opposed the bricking alive of two younger Sahibzadas by Governor of Sirhind. Exhorting upon the Congress workers to unite and get battle ready, he invoked great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Azad and others, who on this day in 1942 had raised the voice against the British asking them to ‘Quit India’.
Baghel said, while the British had left, the BJP government at the centre was treating the opposition leaders like that and was also trying to finish the smaller and regional parties in different states. He pointed out, how the BJP was misusing the investigating agencies like Enforcement Directorate against the political opponents. He said all the institutions had been captured.
He also recalled how the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi stood by the students against the police brutalities.
Speaking on the occasion, the PPCC president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring announced that once the Congress forms government in the state, it will free sand mining from the mafia. He asked the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as what happened to Rs 30,000 crores he and Arvind Kejriwal had claimed would be generated from sand mining.
Warring noted that the AAP could merely generate Rs 300 crores and what happened with Rs 30,000 crores, should be known to Mann and Kejriwal. He said, if the state will get just Rs 300 crores and rest money would be pocketed by the mafia, it is better to set the sand free for people to use and prevent mafia from the loot.
Warring also called for the police reforms in the state and announced that after the Congress forms government, reforms will be initiated which will make police accountability mandatory. This, he added, was important to prevent abuse and registration of false cases against innocent people. Every inquiry officer who orders registration of an FIR will be held accountable and made to compensate for any willfully wrong FIR.