Punjab Elections: Punjab will go to the polls on February 20. (File)
Bhagwant Mann, the presumptive Chief Minister of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab, said today that he was getting a "fantastic response" from people on his campaign and predicted the Congress' defeat, targeting both its Chief Ministers, Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Singh Channi.
"The previous government was run from the palace and the palace doors never opened to the people in 4.5 years," Bhagwant Mann told NDTV while campaigning for the Punjab election in Lambi, an Akali Dal stronghold.
Mr Mann, currently the AAP MP from Sangrur, is contesting the February 20 Punjab election from Dhuri and was recently named AAP's Chief Minister pick.
He said AAP's prospects "are improving by the day" and claimed that those who were thinking of voting other parties "are wondering whether to waste their votes".
He also said on March 10 -- the day of the election results -- it would be AAP doing the bhangra.
"The whole of Punjab will do the bhangra. The voters of Punjab will bring historic change."
Punjab's ruling Congress faces a huge challenge this time from Arvind Kejriwal's AAP, besides the BJP-Amarinder combine and the Akali Dal-led coalition.
"People want to come out of the trap of two parties who come to power by turn and never take action against each other," Mr Mann said.
"The people relate to my name and my personality. They say I am like their son or their nephew," said the comic-turned-politician.
If he targeted Amarinder Singh's "rule from the palace", he did not spare his successor Charanjit Singh Channi either. Mr Channi was yesterday named the Congress' Chief Minister pick even as he parries allegations clouding his nephew Bhupinder Singh "Honey", arrested recently by the Enforcement Directorate in an illegal sand-mining case.
"Charanjit Singh Channi admitted that he could not keep an eye on his relative. Crores were found from his home in raids. Those who can't keep an eye on their own relative, how can they take care of Punjab?" Mr Mann questioned.
"Rahul Gandhi called him a man of the poor. He has declared 170 crore in his election affidavit. If 5 to 10 crore was found at his nephew's home, how is he poor?"
Why does Congress think a Dalit Chief Minister will help, he questioned, still aiming at the Congress pick. "No caste politics will work in Punjab. The Congress is very wrong. This is not Uttar Pradesh or Bihar. There is social bonding in Punjab," said Mr Mann.