Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday said far from bringing in any change in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had vitiated the political atmosphere in the state by selling tickets for crores of rupees to political turncoats with criminal complaints registered against them.

Addressing public gatherings at Sangrur, the SAD president said “AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is talking about bringing in change in Punjab.

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I want to ask him what change he proposes to bring in the State by selling as many as 65 out of the 117 party tickets to turncoats”.

Badal said Kejriwal only wanted to use Punjab as a stepping stone to success, Badal said “Kejriwal did not visit Punjab for more than four years after winning 20 seats and emerging as the principal opposition party in the state.

Now also he has no commitment to Punjab. Once he loses here he will shift to Rajasthan or some other state,” he said.

The SAD leader said Kejriwal had always followed an anti-Punjab agenda. He gave the example of how the AAP government in Delhi had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court demanding that the river waters of Punjab be transferred to Haryana and Delhi.

Badal said similarly AAP stood for the closure of the thermal plants in Punjab and also wanted to criminalize stubble burning.

The SAD chief said the AAP government was also not extending the free power facility to farmers in Delhi. He also said even the facilities announced for Punjab like Rs 1,000 per month for all women and 300 units of free power were not implemented in Delhi. “It is clear that Kejriwal is trying to fool Punjabis in the same manner as done by
Captain Amarinder Singh earlier” he said.

Badal said the SAD-BSP alliance is committed to increasing the old-age pension from Rs 1,500 per month to Rs 3100 per month, giving Rs 2,000 per month to women heads of below poverty line families, Rs Ten lakh student cards for higher studies, Rs 10 lakh medical insurance, create one lakh government jobs and ten lakh private jobs, distribute five lakh houses free of cost to the poor and needy as well as give 5,000 five marla plots to the poor in each constituency of the state.