Punjab polls: See through 'false promises' of AAP, Badals, says Amarinder

Patiala: Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Sunday appealed to electorates to join him in the battle against the dangers posed by the Badals and Arvind Kejriwal to the state.

He pledged not to allow the Badals to "get away with goondagardi" and urged the Election Commission to "remove thousands of volunteers brought by AAP from other states, including Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, to manage its Punjab poll campaign".

At a public meeting in his hometown of Patiala, Singh said the Akalis and the AAP leadership posed a threat to the state and asked people to see through their "false" promises.

The Congress chief ministerial candidate, with his wife Preneet Kaur by his side, denounced the Badal government, saying development works ground to a halt in Patiala and Amritsar, which he represented as a Member of Parliament, under the Badal rule out of "sheer vengeance".

He said he had set up the Patiala Development Authority with a corpus of Rs 300 crore at the time of leaving the state government and the Amritsar Development Authority, which had funds to the tune of Rs 2,700 crore during his tenure.

The Badal government, however, diverted the fund to their "personal" coffers, the PPCC chief alleged.

Singh, while referring to "the list of Kejriwal's broken promises" in Delhi, said AAP "with its threatening mix of extreme ideologies" was an example of poor governance and corruption.

As many as 19 AAP MLAs in Delhi were behind bars on charges of graft and rape, he said and added that with "its bunch of outsiders and total lack of experience in good governance", the party could not put Punjab back on the track of progress.

He said that in the Akalis' 10-year rule, industries fled the state and mafias ruled the roost, "which is evident from the Nabha jailbreak".

He reiterated his promise of punishing all those found involved in the recent incidents of sacrilege in the state.

"I will not spare anyone even if it is Badal," he said. Under the SAD-BJP rule, the government exchequer did not have sufficient money to pay salaries and properties were "sold and mortgaged" to make essential payments, he said, adding that nowhere had he seen any government being run like this.

"The youth of the state suffered due to unemployment and the drug menace," Singh said as he vowed to "wipe out" drugs from the state within four weeks if his party came to power.

"The halqa in-charges are looting people at the behest of the Badals," he alleged.