BJP's Chugh slams Punjab's AAP govt over rejection of nominations for local body polls

The BJP has accused the AAP government of rejecting nominations of 21 party candidates in local body elections, calling it a "calculated conspiracy" to eliminate the BJP.

The BJP on Tuesday held a protest against the AAP government, accusing it of indulging in an assault on democracy by deliberately rejecting the nominations of several party candidates for the upcoming local body elections.

The protest was led by BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh.

Chugh said the AAP government ''engineered the wholesale rejection'' of 21 BJP candidates across Batala, Barnala and Moga.

''This is not a coincidence. It is a calculated conspiracy to eliminate the BJP from the electoral arena,'' he alleged, adding that candidates from wards where the BJP has traditionally been dominant have been specifically and selectively targeted.

He said women candidates too have been subjected to grave injustice.

''In one particular case, the original complainant herself withdrew her complaint, yet the AAP government still rejected the nomination of the BJP's woman candidate, simply because AAP did not want a rival candidate in that ward,'' Chugh said.

He said the party that makes tall claims of women's empowerment on Women's Day is the same party that snatches their democratic rights on the election day, and ''this is AAP's true face.''.

The Bhagwant Mann government is ''trampling upon'' the very soul of democracy, he said, adding that elections are a constitutional process, not AAP's personal fiefdom.

BJP will also seek accountability from those election officers who allowed themselves to become instruments of this dirty politics, Chugh said.

Targeting the AAP government, the BJP leader said it had promised a health revolution, but 52 months later, not a single new hospital or ward has been built.

The chief minister had promised an education revolution, but not a single school has been built, children did not receive sweaters in winter, and textbooks did not reach schools, he alleged.

''Mann had guaranteed Rs 1,000 per month to every woman. Today, every woman of Punjab is owed a backlog of Rs 52,000, and not a single rupee has reached her pockets,'' he added.

Chugh challenged the government to produce even one person in all of Punjab who received the Rs 10 lakh insurance.

He claimed that the Central government had sent funds under the National Health Mission to upgrade X-ray machines and laboratories across all government hospitals in Punjab, but the AAP allegedly diverted that money to print banners of its own leaders' photographs.

Polling for 105 municipal bodies, including eight municipal corporations, in Punjab will be held on May 26.

The counting of votes will take place on May 29.