Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday lashed out at the Congress party during the Assembly session. Firstly, CM Mann presented a lock to the Punjab Assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and asked him to use it to make sure opposition members didn’t walk out of the House during a discussion on the Governor’s address.
Following this, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha witnessed heated exchanges between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party and the opposition Congress.
Mann asked Leader of Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa to tell the central leadership of the Congress not to “bother” giving seats to the AAP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
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“Who does Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi sit with? With me. Have you ever sat with them? On one hand, you are making agreements (on seat sharing) with us. Go and tell them (Sonia and Rahul Gandhi) not to give Kurukshetra, Delhi, and Gujarat (Lok Sabha) seats for us,” Mann said.
Mann made veiled references to alleged corruption when Congress ran the state. He also said he has files on everyone.
Further, an old remark by Bajwa on Mann’s career as an artiste resurfaced. The Punjab CM said he became famous at 17 while nobody wanted to make a film with Bajwa’s son who wanted to be an actor.
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Mann took potshots at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and called the party an “old fiat car”.
CM Mann said Rahul Gandhi was busy with his yatra in Chhattisgarh when the budget session of the Parliament was going on.
“The budget session was going on and the PM was also to speak. But their (Congress) main speaker was wandering in the jungles of Chhattisgarh. Do not know which yatra he was taking out?” said Mann.
Further taking a swipe at the grand old party, Mann said the “Congress, which ruled the country for 60 years, “neither had any MLA nor MP from 2015 to 2020”.
“They became arrogant when they ruled Delhi for 15 years,” he said.
“Now they are pleading for giving two to three seats (seat-sharing in Delhi) and asking us to take seats in Gujarat,” he said.
AAP and Congress are INDIA bloc partners but have failed to arrive at an agreement in Punjab for the Lok Sabha elections.
The two parties closed their seat-sharing deal in Delhi, Haryana, Goa, Chandigarh, and Gujarat.
As part of the agreement reached between the ruling party in Delhi and the grand old party, Congress will contest 3 of the 7 Lok Sabha seats in the national capital while the AAP will field candidates in the remaining 4 constituencies.
In neighbouring Gujarat, the Congress will contest 24 of 26 Lok Sabha seats, leaving the remaining 2–Bharuch and Bhavnagar– for the AAP.
In Haryana, the Congress will contest 8 of the 9 Lok Sabha seats while the AAP will contest the lone seat–Kurukshetra.
The two parties also reached a consensus on the grand old party contesting the prized Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.
As part of the seat-sharing deal, the Congress will contest both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa.
The Lok Sabha polls are expected to be held in April-May this year.
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Published: 05 Mar 2024, 08:42 AM IST