Amid bonhomie with Nitish Kumar, Captain Amarinder critical of Biharis

While PPCC president Captain Amarinder Singh has invited Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for campaign in Punjab, he took repeated barbs at Aam Admi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal for appointing Biharis and UPites as election observers in the entire state.

Captain Amarinder Singh addressed a rally in Talwandi Sabo on Sunday evening for congress candidate Khushbaz Singh Jatana. “Beware of these topiwalas. Kejriwal is a very clever chap and has got two men—Durgesh Pathak and Sanjay Singh—appointed as in-charge of Punjab.

They both belong to Uttar Pradesh. 52 people have been brought from UP and Bihar to man all the 22 districts of Punjab. They are importing 40,000 more from these states to engage in Punjab elections,” he said. Continuing his tirade against the Aam Admi Party, Captain said that to nurture his ambitions of being the chief minister, Kejriwal dumped the Punjabis in his party and people like Sucha Singh Chhotepur were sidelined. “Punjab Punjabia da” resonated in his speech against the AAP.

Taking on the Badals, Captain said that a mafia raj is ruling the state which has captured every business opportunity, which could have benefited the ordinary people. “sand mafia, mining mafia, cable TV mafia, transport mafia is what the ten-year rule of Badals has produced in Punjab.

So many of our kids have been mowed down by their buses but they never even offered any compensation.” Attacking the television channel owned by the Badal family, Captain said that if he gets to power he will invite media companies to launch new channels in the state. “This is a propaganda based channel and I tell you people of PTC channel to behave otherwise I will shut your news channel,” said Captain amid loud cheers from the crowd.

Captain recalled his earlier days in politics when he had represented Talwand Sabo assembly seat in 1985 and blamed turncoat leader and SAD MLA Jit Mohinder Singh Sidhu for the lack of development in the region. After arriving three hours behind the schedule, Captain apologized to the crowd in his address.

Earlier, while addressing the crowd Congress candidate Khushbaz Jatana asked the PPCC president to send sitting SAD MLA Jit Mohinder Singh Sidhu to jail. “Talwandi Sabo is the constituency which is leading in having the most number of false cases registered against innocent people and once the congress government comes to power, please ensure that the guilty including Sidhu is not spared.”

He also spoke of how the neighbouring areas of Sardulgarh (bastion of SAD MP Balwinder Singh Bhundar) and Maur (SAD MLA Janmeja Sekhon) were responsible for the lack of drinking water supply in the region. Many SAD leaders including former and sitting sarpanches joined the Congress party in presence of Captain Amarinder Singh.