Vote For AAP In Place Of Congress: Arvind Kejriwal Before Jalandhar Polls

Ahead of next month's Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal Thursday appealed to people of the constituency to vote for his party if they want development, claiming the Congress did nothing for them in 60 years.

"We are doing good work and with honesty," he said, addressing a gathering here. "Vote for us in place of Congress...give us one chance," the Delhi chief minister added.

"For past 60 years, Jalandhar has been represented by a Congress MP. For 60 years, you voted for the Congress. What did you get? Did the Congress give you anything? Nothing," Arvind Kejriwal said.

He said people of Punjab gave AAP a chance in last year's assembly polls and the party formed the government with overwhelming majority. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was also present.

"And the second thing, if you vote for the Congress, what benefit will you get? In Punjab, it is our government, we have to get the work done. If you vote for the Congress, they will fight and indulge in 'Tu Tu Mein Mein'. If you want fights, vote for them, but if you have to get all your work done, get roads built, landfills cleaned, then give one chance to AAP," Mr Kejriwal said.

The Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January. The Congress has fielded his wife Karamjit Kaur, while AAP has fielded Sushil Kumar Rinku, a former Congress leader who recently joined the ruling party in the state.

Arvind Kejriwal told the people of Jalandhar that he was giving them a guarantee that all their work would be completed by the AAP government.

After AAP came to power in Punjab, during past one year, "we have started to fulfil these promises, guarantees", he said.

"Some people come to us and say that we don't know how to do politics. They tell us that promises and guarantees are not fulfilled so fast but only in the last year of the term so that people won't forget. We tell them we have not come here to do politics, but to serve people," Arvind Kejriwal said.

The AAP leader touched upon his party's poll promise of giving 300 units of free power every month to residents of Punjab, saying parties like the BJP, Congress and the SAD used to mock it for this.

Arvind Kejriwal said just within three months of coming to power, "we have showed them how this was done".

"I was told by Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema that under every head money is coming now. Money used to come earlier too, but all this used to go into their pockets, into the Swiss bank accounts of leaders of these parties. Now, all this money is going into the government treasury. And with this money, your electricity bills are becoming zero," he said.

He said 28,000 youths have been given government jobs during past one year and in the coming years, several thousand more jobs will be given, he said.

Mr Kejriwal further said there is no big government hospital in Jalandhar. "We will set up a big hospital like PGIMER," he said, adding landfill sites will be cleaned and roads built.

He said blue (ration) card holders were facing some problems, as cards of some beneficiaries have got deleted by mistake, but he assured that everyone will get ration.

Hitting out at the previous regimes, Arvind Kejriwal said for 75 years, they have destroyed Punjab, "but we will set things right and all problems will be solved though it may take time".

"We eliminated mafia raj including sand mafia. Now, people are getting sand at affordable rates," he said.

He alleged that scholarships for Scheduled Caste students were usurped during the previous regime. "The minister in the previous government responsible has been sent to jail by our government in Punjab. Now, children are getting scholarship. I am told scholarship of some students is pending, but they too will be get it in next few days," the AAP leader added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)