"People of India are fed up with these hollow slogans and promises": Amarinder Singh
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday mocked Prime Minister''s "Main Bhi Chowkidar" campaign describing it as a ''jumla'' (rhetoric) which will not solve any problem of the people of the country.
The BJP has intensified its "Main bhi chowkidar" (I too am watchman) campaign with PM Modi and other party leaders, including its president Amit Shah prefixing the word chowkidar to their names in their Twitter profile.
Prime Minister Modi's Twitter account profile identified him as "Chowkidar Narendra Modi" as did other BJP leaders in a coordinated campaign against Mr Gandhi's sustained "Chowkidar Chor Hai" jibe at the prime minister over the Rafale deal.
"Such slogans do not help fill the stomachs of our poor people, they do not give jobs to our youth," Amarinder Singh said in an informal chat with media people in Patiala.
He was interacting on the sidelines after a meeting with MLAs, zone in-charges and heads of frontal organizations of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) from Patiala here ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
The meeting had been convened to review the party's preparedness in the Patiala constituency, which is presently represented by rebel AAP MP Dharamvira Gandhi.
The "jumla party" "failed" to deliver on any promise all these years, and was now resorting to more "jumlebaazi" in a desperate bid to win votes, Mr Singh said hitting out at the BJP.
"The people of India are fed up with these hollow slogans and promises. They wanted to know what the BJP-led government had done for them in the last five years," he added.
Asking the PPCC to be fully prepared for the parliamentary polls, Mr Singh said he was confident the party would win all the 13 seats in Punjab, which goes to polls in the final phase.
"The Congress is in a very strong position in the state," he said.
He reiterated his earlier stand that the party did not need any alliance and would go it alone in the state.
Asked if the Indian Air Force's Balakot air strikes would make a difference to the poll-scene, the Chief Minister said that was not likely to happen "as what the BJP government did is nothing exceptional".
"It was the duty of the government in power to retaliate after the Pulwama attacks and even the Congress would have done the same had it been in power," he added.
Pointing out that the defence forces were apolitical in nature, which made them the real ''chowkidars'' of India, the chief minister lashed out at the BJP for allegedly seeking to politicise the forces.
"The Congress never did that, and no political party worth its name would indulge in such pettiness," he said.
When former Congress MP Preneet Kaur, who is Mr Singh's wife, was asked about her readiness to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Patiala, she described herself to be fully prepared and geared to take on the opposition.
The Congress has worked for the development of Punjab, including Patiala, and the people appreciate it, said Ms Kaur, who lost the last elections to Dharamvira Gandhi.