Punjab Bypolls: Arvind Kejriwal seeks votes for AAP’s Chabbewal candidate Ishank

AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday (November 9, 2024) urged voters in Chabbewal, in Punjab, to vote for party candidate Ishank Chabbewal in the upcoming bypoll and promised them in return “everything” they need for the development of the constituency.

Mr. Kejriwal made the remark in Chabbewal of Hoshiarpur at a rally which he attended with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Bypolls to the four Assembly seats – Gidderbaha, Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal and Barnala – will take place on November 20 and counting of votes will be held on November 23. “We did a lot of work for you,” Mr. Kejriwal said at the rally.

EC agrees to parties’ pleas, postpones bypolls for 14 Assembly seats to Nov. 20

He also pointed out Mr. Ishank’s father’s defection to the Aam Aadmi Party, saying he was earlier with a “wrong party.” “He was feeling suffocated. He was with the Congress and he could not get any work done. Now, he is at the right place,” he said about Hoshiarpur MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal.

Mr. Kejriwal praised the MP’s work for Hoshiarpur constituency, specifically free medical care to the poor, as he sought votes for his son. “You ensure victory of Ishank with a historic mandate and I, the chief of AAP, give you a guarantee that whatever needs to be done in Chabbewal will be done,” he said.

Raj Kumar Chabbewal had joined the AAP after quitting the Congress and went on it win the Hoshiarpur Lok Sabha seat on an AAP ticket. Mr. Kejriwal said if his party’s candidate comes to power, Chabbewal will get an ITI polytechnic college and its irrigation needs will be met through water from the Bist Doab canal.

“A policy for small-scale industry will be drafted for attracting industrial units, stadiums and play grounds will be set up, and the road from Adampur to Garhshankar will be named after Baba Banda Singh Bahadur,” he said. “All roads leading to ‘Gurudhams’ will be 18-feet wide.” Mr. Kejriwal said that before the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls, people were beset with heavy electricity bills.

“We promised you we will waive pending electricity bills and free electricity bills. Tell us, whether we fulfilled it or not?” he asked the gathering. Mr. Kejriwal said it was a “miracle” that only two States in the country – Punjab and Delhi – whose residents get “zero electricity bills.” “In the rest of the country, the electricity is quite expensive,” he said.