CHANDIGARH: The Aggarwal and Samasth Vaish Bandhu, Punjab, has invited Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal as chief guest for the Maharaj Aggarsain Jayanti Samaroh in Jalandhar next month. While it is yet to be known whether he has accepted the invitation, it has managed to raise quite a few eyebrows at the Bharatiya Janata Party.
BJP minister Madan Mohan Mittal who was a prominent invitee at the same function in September 2013, was instrumental in getting Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to be invited as the chief guest. Sources in BJP said efforts are on to either get Kejriwal's visit cancelled or organise a parallel function in Jalandhar, where SAD-BJP leaders could be invited. The Samaj’s new-found love for Kejriwal has sent alarm bells ringing in the BJP. At the same function in September 2013, a few months before the Lok Sabha elections, BJP minister Madan Mohan Mittal was a prominent invitee. He was instrumental, sources in the BJP said, in getting Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to be invited as the chief guest. Sources in BJP said efforts were on to either get Kejriwal’s visit cancelled or organise a parallel function in Jalandhar, where the SAD-BJP leaders could be invited.
The association represents 365 communities, whose members are mainly traders. Ahead of the Assembly elections, the function is a show of strength by the organisation. Mahesh Gupta, general secretary of the Punjab chapter of International Vaish Federation, said that they have met Kejriwal twice in Jalandhar and later in Delhi. “Kejriwal belongs to our community. Not only that, he wants to help us. He ensured us he would be coming. We honoured him when he had come to Jalandhar,” Gupta said. He said his community said Kejriwal was the new hope for the traders and entrepreneurs of Punjab.
“Jab rakshak hi bhakshak ban jaye to hum kya karein (When the protector becomes the destroyer then what do we do?)” he said, explaining why the community had shifted from its well-known allegiance to the BJP.
