Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Manish Sisodia to kick off AAP campaign in Punjab on April 15

AAP has named candidates for 10 of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab. Delhi chief minister and national convener Arvind Kejriwal is also expected to hold rallies later this month, though no dates have been finalised so far.

Delhi deputy chief minister and AAP’s Punjab affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia will launch the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in the state from Sangrur on April 15. Announcing this, AAP state campaign committee chairman Aman Arora said that Sisodia would address party workers and outline the campaign strategy for the May 19 elections.

Delhi’ deputy CM and AAP’s Punjab Affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia will launch the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in the state with a rally in Sangrur on April 15. (PTI File Photo)

“We will start the campaign by visiting constituencies for which candidates have been announced,” Arora said at a press conference in Chandigarh on Thursday. The party has named candidates for 10 of the 13 constituencies. Delhi chief minister and national convener Arvind Kejriwal is also expected to hold rallies later this month, though no dates have been finalised so far.

Campaign committee formed

Arora, who was appointed chairman of campaign committee two days ago, has constituted his team, appointing Harchand Singh Barsat, Navdeep Singh Sangha, Neel Garg, Sukhraj Singh Gora and Avtar Singh Eilwal as members. He said he would address meetings at Hoshiarpur and Jalandhar on April 16, Anandpur Sahib and Patiala on April 17, Fatehgarh Sahib on April 18, Gurdaspur and Amritsar on April 19 and Faridkot and Ferozepur on April 21.

Kotkapura MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan, state secretary Navdeep Sangha, youth wing chief Manjinder Singh and state media in-charge Manjit Singh Sidhu were also present.

‘Rivals maligning Mann’s image’

Arora, who is MLA from Sunam, said state unit president and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann would be the face of the party in the parliamentary polls and lead its election campaign in the state.

Asked whether Mann was trying to gain sympathy by repeatedly talking about his act of giving up alcohol, Arora accused leaders of the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of maligning Mann’s public image through a malicious campaign about drinking liquor.

“Because they could not accuse us of running any kind of mafia, these parties started the vilification campaign. Mann quit drinking in public interest and silenced his critics. Why don’t you ask those who sells liquor?” Arora added, naming Congress and SAD leaders who are in liquor business.

The campaign committee chairman said that instead of targeting their adversaries by raising such non-issues, they should focus on agrarian crisis, farmer suicides, unemployment, drugs etc.