Ahead of voting in the Sangrur Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate for the by-poll Gurmail Singh said the Bhagwant Mann government has set a benchmark in the state on waging war against corruption and mafia in the past three months.

The AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, he pointed out has been relentlessly pursuing corruption allegations against Opposition leaders and blue-eyed officers of the previous government, who he alleged had patronised mafia and notorious criminals.

Advertisement

Gurmail Singh said a decisive battle against corruption and setting up special investigation teams to probe major corruption cases including against its own sacked health minister Vijay Singla, former Congress minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot and the arrest of IAS officer Sanjay Popli, has set a benchmark in Punjab’s politics under Mann’s leadership.

“Baffled by the extraordinary decisions taken by AAP, Opposition leaders are aware of the fact that AAP is going to make a hat-trick in the Sangrur despite their nefarious tactics and scurrilous claims to tarnish the clean image of the AAP party,” he said.

Cracking the whip on corrupt practices, he said the AAP launched an anti-corruption helpline and in a short span of its tenure arrested 45 government officials and others on charges of corruption.

Lashing out at the Opposition for targeting the AAP government for the alleged deterioration of the law and order situation in the state, Singh said that the gangsters were patronised by successive governments for the past 70 years and now they are putting all the blame on CM Mann-led AAP government’s three-month governance.

The Sangrur Lok Sabha seat fell vacant after Bhagwant Mann, presently chief minister, contested and won from the Dhuri assembly segment in the 2022 Assembly election. There are 16 candidates, including 13 males and three women, in the fray. Voting will take place from 8 am to 6 pm and the counting of votes will be held on 26 June.