Brushing aside the charge of being an outsider in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), party candidate for Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypolls Maj Gen Suresh Kumar Khajuria (retd), on Tuesday, also denied any friction within the party.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Khajuria declined that AAP’s Majha zone president, Kanwal Preet Singh Kaki, resigned after the party selected him as its candidate for the bypolls.
He said, on September 21, Kanwal shared stage with former cabinet minister and SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia. “The party high command took cognisance of this and issued him a show-cause notice the next day for anti-party activities. He was asked to respond within seven days. He did not have any option but to resign,” Khajuria said.
Earlier, Kaki had expressed his displeasure on Khajuria’s selections and termed him an outsider. Reacting to this, Khajuria said, “If I am an outsider, what do people have to say about Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar who is from Abohar which is around 300km from this constituency? BJP candidate Swarn Singh Salaria lives in Mumbai. They both are outsiders.”
Asked why people should vote for him, Khajuria said people have seen the performance of the previous governments. “I don’t want to make any promises to the people of my constituency. I want to be their voice and stand with them,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Asked why people should vote for him, Khajuria said people have seen the performance of the previous governments. “I don’t want to make any promises to the people of my constituency. I want to be their voice and stand with them,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He added, “They have been cheated by the SAD government and Congress governments. This is the time for change.” Taking a dig at Congress candidate Sunil Jakhar, Khajuria said, “When people in his native region refused him in two elections, he had no option than to contest from outside.”
On Salaria, he said unless the BJP candidate uses money and muscle power, he is nowhere near him. “If both the candidates refrain from their old tricks of distributing liquor, money, they won’t win,” Khajuria said. He added, “Salaria wants to buy our integrity with his money. He is a gentleman with money and believes in vulgar display of his wealth.”