The opposition Congress and the BJP Tuesday ridiculed the AAP for failing to win even a single seat in the recently held assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and asked the ruling party to focus on Punjab.
While Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said AAP government must learn a lesson from the election results, BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill claimed that the AAP’s “exit countdown” has begun in Punjab.
“Although Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann squandered Punjab’s exchequer in the poll-bound states, the AAP failed to even save its deposit,” Mr Bajwa, the leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, said in a statement.
“The AAP government must learn lessons from the election results and start focusing on the state now,” he said.
BJP’s Mr Shergill said the “exit countdown” of the AAP has begun and “the sun will set soon” for it in Punjab.
In a statement, Mr Shergill said the AAP contested over 200 seats in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and lost all of them.
“The women voters of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh have given a clear message of trust in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said, adding “the women voters in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have taken revenge for betrayal and in the same way, revenge will be taken by women voters of Punjab.”
Talking specifically about the women voters of Punjab, Mr Shergill said that “betrayal and back-stabbing” aptly sums up what the AAP government has done to the women in Punjab.
He said having broken the pre-poll promise of giving Rs 1,000 per month to all the women above 18 years of age, the AAP government stands completely exposed before the people.
“It has been one year and nine months since AAP assumed power in Punjab but they continue to deprive about 1.31 crore eligible women of Rs 1,000 per month by not fulfilling their main poll promise,” he added.
Lashing out at the AAP government, Mr Shergill said, “Crores of rupees from the state exchequer have been wasted by the Bhagwant Mann-led state government for campaigning in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. But the people of these states did not buy the ‘fake Punjab Model’ and the AAP ended up securing fewer votes than NOTA.”
The BJP leader questioned if the Mann government can “waste” crore of rupees in an attempt to expand the party’s footprints in other states and fulfil the political ambitions of Arvind Kejriwal, why cannot the government fulfil its promise of giving Rs 1,000 monthly financial aid to the women in its own state.