Sukhbir Badal said Punjab has been wrongly branded as the hub of drug abuse.
Sukhbir Badal, 54, dismisses Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party as a pretender and says the Punjab election early next year will again be fought between traditional rivals Congress and his Akali Dal.
"AAP will be wiped out, it will be third," the Akali Dal leader told NDTV, as he drove down the road to Ballachor, in his SUV, a Mitsubishi Montero, stopping in villages for 'sangat darshans' or public meetings.
He did not correct this reporter when introduced on camera as prospective chief minister. Officially, the Akali Dal is still projecting his father, Parkaash Singh Badal, 88, as its chief ministerial candidate.
Sukhbir Badal's assessment of AAP's chances are at odds with that of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who sees in surging crowds of young people at his rallies a clamour for change. The Akali Dal has ruled for 10 years with Sukhir Badal serving as deputy to his father.
Both the Congress and AAP are counting on a strong anti-incumbency factor against the Badals and have attacked them for the rise in drug abuse among the young in the state.
Mr Badal said Punjab has been wrongly branded as the hub of drug abuse. "The way the whole country has blamed Punjab is wrong. We have less drug consumption than even Maharashtra or any other state. If you look at statistics put forward in parliament on the number of people who died because of drugs, Maharashtra was number 1 we were 12,'' the deputy chief minister asserts.
He rejected AAP's claim to Punjab's young vote saying, "We had a youth function the other day and thousands came. Our student organisation won the last university elections."
He also alleges a Congress-AAP understanding to try and keep the Akali Dal out. "There is more quid pro quo between the Congress and AAP because they have been partners in Delhi," Mr Badal alleged.
"They are intimidating people, people of Punjab are going to throw them out, they are only promoting their own family. Sukhbir Badal is an expert at lying," retorted AAP's Himmat Singh Shergill, who will contest the assembly election from Mohali.