AAP's CM face for Punjab to be from the Sikh community: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced that the party's chief ministerial face for the 2022 Punjab assembly polls will be from the Sikh community.

When asked who will be the chief ministerial face of the party for the upcoming polls, Kejriwal said, ''Discussions are going on in the party regarding this, when time comes, you will be informed.'' ''But one thing I can tell you is that the entire Punjab will be proud of him. One thing is certain that AAP's CM face will be from the Sikh community,'' he said.

Kejriwal, who is the AAP national convener, asserted that the people of Punjab are fed up with the present leadership ruling the state and added that the state is looking for a new type of leadership.

Asked if there was any possibility of Navjot Singh Sidhu joining the AAP and if there had been any talks with the Congress leader, who was at loggerheads with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, the AAP leader said, ''Sidhu is a Congress leader, a senior leader. I respect him a lot. So, I think there should be no loose talk regarding any leader.'' To a question whether there have been any meetings with Sidhu, Kejriwal said, ''If anything happens, you will be the first to know.'' Kejriwal was here to induct former IPS officer Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, who was part of the SIT probing the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident in Punjab, into the Aam Aadmi Party here.

Singh joined the party fold in presence of Kejriwal and other senior leaders including Raghav Chadha and AAP state unit chief and MP, Bhagwant Mann.

When asked, during a press conference, if the AAP's CM face can be from the Dalit community, Kejriwal replied, ''Entire Punjab will be proud of him and he will be from Sikh community.'' To a question on from where Singh will fight the polls, Kejriwal said it will be decided later.

Projecting the AAP as a 'viable' alternative to the Congress, SAD and BJP, Kejriwal said nothing changed in the state when these parties were at the helm and he appealed to people to give one chance to his party to usher in a change.

Taking a dig at the ruling Congress in Punjab over factionalism, he said, ''Punjab is going through a bad phase, ruling party leaders are fighting like cats and dogs. One is pained to see for what they are fighting, they are fighting for power, they are fighting over who will become CM, who will become the state unit chief.'' He said during the second wave of Covid last month, when people were expecting the chief minister and his government to come to their aid, ''They were busy fighting among themselves.'' Without naming any outfit, he said, ''There is another party which faces serious corruption and sacrilege charges. Then there is a third party whose leaders are not allowed to enter mohallas by the people.'' ''So, in this present situation, who is concerned for the people of Punjab? Who will find solutions to the problems being faced by them? And they are those parties that have ruled the state for the last 70 years. People have earlier given numerous chances to the Congress and SAD-BJP (when they were allies),'' he said. ''...Now, the people of Punjab want change. People now have an alternative. I want to appeal to people of the state that during the past 70 years they have given numerous chances to these three parties, but nothing changed, corruption, fight for power..all these things continue. If AAP gets a chance once, we will usher in change,'' he said.

Projecting his party's Delhi model of governance, he said people in the national capital gave chance to a new party once and now they are enjoying round-the-clock power, access to better healthcare, education and other facilities.

''People of Punjab are also saying they want free and round-the-clock power supply. They are also demanding better schools, hospitals and Mohala clinics like in Delhi. They are raising questions that if the AAP government did so much work in a short span of time, what was done by the other parties in 70 years,'' he said. Later, he paid obeisance at the Golden Temple and the Durgiana temple.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)