BSP has "sold" 15 of the 20 seats allotted to them to Akali Dal, Charanjit Channi alleged (File)
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday accused the leadership of the Bahujan Samaj Party of backstabbing the Scheduled Castes community by "selling" the party to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
He also slammed the AAP, calling the party modern-day's East India Company aimed at "plundering the wealth of the state", and said its national convener Arvind Kejriwal does not even know how to milk a cow.
Targeting the BSP, Mr Channi said it no longer represents the ideology of its founder Kanshi Ram. Its leadership backstabbed the Scheduled Castes community by "selling" the party to the Akali Dal, he claimed.
He alleged that the BSP "sold" 15 of the 20 seats allotted to them to SAD. The BSP leadership has made itself a "slave" of the Akalis, he added.
For the Assembly polls next year, the SAD has forged an alliance with the BSP in Punjab. As per the seat-sharing arrangement, the Mayawati-led party will fight 20 of the 117 Assembly seats in Punjab while the rest will be contested by the SAD.
Taking on AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister dared him to explain why Punjabis should believe him when his own "flock does not have faith in him".
He claimed three of the four AAP MPs elected in 2014 have left the party and that 11 of its 20 MLAs elected in 2017 have left as well.
Charanjit Channi said that this is indicative of the fact that the AAP is a "house of cards that is bound to doom in a day or two".
Arvind Kejriwal has no basic knowledge about the state due to which he does not know that in Punjab, every youth has to multitask every day to run his household, the chief minister said.
Mr Kejriwal does not even know how to milk a cow, what does he know about the problems of the state? Mr Channi asked.
Mr Channi said he himself has faced hardships and hence, he is well aware of the problems of the common man. That is why he is ensuring the optimal utilisation of all government funds for the well-being of the poor and the common man, he claimed.
Former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar urged people not to vote by falling for the "malicious" propaganda of any party.
"Those leaders who are teaching lessons of nationalism to us today were nowhere in the scene when India was fighting for its freedom. Only the Congress fought," he added.