Chandigarh: As Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and party MPs Raghav Chadha and Sanjay Singh arrived for the second day of the Opposition meeting in Bengaluru, a political furore has risen in Punjab over Congress extending its support to AAP in its fight against the ordinance brought by the Centre on the control of services.
BJP leader Harjit Grewal has criticised the Congress for extending its support to AAP saying the alliance between them has been an old one and it has come to the fore now. "The alliance has existed since long. They just did not want to bring it in front of the people. But, now the whole truth has come before the common people. They will play together in the Lok Sabha elections. Both Congress and AAP are cheating the people. This is a big conspiracy against Punjab and democracy. Both parties will have to bear the consequences," Grewal said.
Echoing the same, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Majithia said that the AAP-Congress coalition is an 'unholy marriage' in which both parties have treated Punjab as a pawn to seal an unethical deal. Majithia alleged that both the parties sacrificed Punjab for their own benefit. "The hidden pact is that Congress will not fight against AAP in Punjab and Delhi while AAP will not oppose the party in other states," he said.
The party has been alleging since long that the Congress and the AAP were playing with the sentiments of the people of Punjab. "The cat is finally out of the bag,", Majithia said. According to the Akali leader, Congress's support to the AAP signifies a virtual merger of the two "anti-Punjab and anti-Sikh" parties. "It is a big betrayal to the people by both the parties," he said.
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Also, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar said that the AAP government can be termed as a Congress government. The party is not fulfilling the promises it had made to the people. It is a completely unreliable party, he said.