Two days before the municipal bodies’ elections in Punjab on February 14, the BJP received a big jolt as four of its MC candidates from Mohali district quit the BJP and joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of adopting a dictatorial attitude. Welcoming the BJP candidates who joined the AAP, senior party leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema, while addressing the media at the party headquarters here said that today the poor, farmers and every common man of the country was troubled and fed up with the dictatorship of PM Narendra Modi. He said that PM Modi mercilessly imposed the black agricultural laws on the farmers of the country.

“When the farmers took to the road against these black laws and started opposing the Modi government, Modi first called them Khalistani, Pakistanis, terrorists and traitors to discredit them and their movement. When the farmers did not give up, they were attacked by the BJP goons,” he said. Mohali’s BJP candidate from ward number 9 Rajinder Kaur, BJP candidate from ward number 21 Krishna Rani, ward number 23 BJP candidate Paramjeet Kaur and BJP candidate from ward number 29 Bimla Rani joined the party in the presence of Harpal Singh Cheema at the party headquarters. On these candidates leaving the BJP, Cheema said that today every single person of Punjab was fed up and hating Narendra Modi, but Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma never raised the voice of the people of Punjab in front of Modi.

“More than 200 farmers who agitated were martyred, but Ashwani Sharma did not even express sympathy. Due to this attitude, BJP leaders are constantly leaving the party and that is why BJP president Ashwani Sharma is failing to unite party leaders today,” he added. The AAP leader further said that not only Ashwani Sharma, but no leader of Punjab BJP said a word in support of the farmers. He said that the BJP MP from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol was voted and made an MP by the public. “The people of Punjab gave great respect and love to the Deol family, but they betrayed the people of Punjab. People have now understood the dictatorial attitude of the Modi government,” he said.

Cheema said that today in Punjab, the BJP was in such a situation that BJP leaders were not going to ask for votes in fear of opposition from the people in the civic bodies’ elections. “People have started reacting to the dictatorship of the Modi government. I am saying it today with the claim that the BJP will be completely wiped out of Punjab in the 2022 election,” said Cheema. He said that only the Aam Aadmi Party can make the state financially strong. Cheema said that the enthusiasm with which people are supporting AAP candidates in the civic bodies’ elections clearly shows that the Aam Aadmi Party will form its government with an absolute majority in the 2022 assembly elections.

The four BJP candidates who joined the party said that they decided to leave BJP today due to PM Narendra Modi’s anti-farmer and dictatorial attitude. On joining the AAP, the leaders said that they were impressed by the policies and public welfare work of Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government and decided to join the Aam Aadmi Party. On the occasion, AAP state general secretary Harchand Singh Barsat, senior party leaders Raj Lalli Gill, Govinder Mittal, among others were present.