CHANDIGARH: The Congress today blew the election bugle for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections, which are less than six months away, with the party launching its mass mobilisation programme at the booth level, ‘Har Booth Mazboot’ (strengthening each booth).
While Punjab Congress President and Member of Parliament Amarinder Singh Raja Warring claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party was set to drop over 40-45 sitting MLAs for their links with the BJP, he clarified that none of them were in contact with the grand old party.
The function was presided over by General Secretary in-charge Bhupesh Baghel and attended by district, block and booth-level office bearers.
Setting the tone for the mobilisation, Baghel said that elections in Punjab were quite close and that these were going to be the most important elections, which were not only being watched across the country but even outside. He pointed out that Punjab holds an important place in the country.
Asserting that these elections will decide the fate of Punjab, he said that for Congressmen, these elections had a special significance as, for the last five years, they had faced intimidation, humiliation and vendetta. He said it was always the workers who suffered the worst.
Moreover, he added that the Aam Aadmi Party in the state, like the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, was the most vindictive party that believed in and practised vendetta politics. That is why it was important to defeat them both. He said the Congress had never believed in vendetta politics.
Noting that the AAP was on its way out, he said the Congress was the only option for the state. He predicted a five-cornered contest in Punjab this time. He said the Congress was faced with a challenge from two governments — the BJP government at the Centre and the AAP in Punjab. They are two sides of the same coin, he remarked, while adding that there would be two more players, the Akalis and Waris Punjab De.
Exhorting booth-level workers to work hard, he said the fate of the party depended on them. He said once the party won from every booth, it would mean the MLAs would win, the Congress would win and there would be a Congress government in the state.
“Once you resolve to be strong to win, no matter how many Modis, Manns or Kejriwals come, nobody can defeat you,” he told the booth-level workers amid thunderous cheers and applause.
Quoting senior leader Rahul Gandhi, Baghel said these elections were going to be a battle for principles and ideology. He said it was a battle to save the unity, brotherhood, harmony and Constitution of the country, which were under grave threat. He said both the BJP and the AAP had no faith in the Constitution.
He said Punjab was unsafe today, with drugs being peddled freely and gangsters ruling the roost. He noted that people were being killed in broad daylight, with criminals having no fear of the law.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that the AAP government was on its way out. He alleged that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was surviving on the Rs 1,000 crore advertisement budget. The moment the publicity stopped, his oxygen supply would stop and his government would collapse.
Asserting that the Congress party was strong and united, he said there could always be differences of opinion, which was quite natural. He said while the media was playing up mere differences of opinion within the Congress, which had already been sorted out, it never mentioned that six AAP MPs defected to the BJP and 60 of their MLAs were in touch with the BJP.
He pointed out that no MP or MLA from the Congress defected to the BJP, yet the media was saying there was factionalism in the Congress. He said the AAP was set to drop over 40-45 MLAs for their links with the BJP and clarified that none of them were in contact with the grand old party.
“You do not know where their meeting took place, you only know what happens in Congress,” he said.
Expressing his profound gratitude to the party leadership, Warring said he had lived as a Congressman and would die as a Congressman only. He noted that the party had honoured and rewarded him a lot despite being so junior.
He said there were more senior and competent leaders in the party, like Partap Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Charanjit Singh Channi and others, whom he always respected.
“Leave aside the PCC presidentship, even if I don’t get the ticket, I will still be with the Congress and die as a Congressman only,” he said.