New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's promise of “free power'' in Punjab on the lines of Delhi has electrified the electoral battle in the state and posed a big challenge to the ruling Congress and the main opposition parties SAD and BJP.
A day ahead of his visit to Chandigarh, the AAP leader also claimed that women in Punjab are very unhappy with rising inflation. "...In Delhi we provide 200 units of free electricity to every family. The women are very happy. Women in Punjab are also very unhappy with inflation. If the AAP comes to power in the state, it will also provide free electricity in Punjab.
Kejriwal had earlier said that AAP will field a Jat Sikh as its CM face in the upcoming assembly polls and now he has promised free power, which the party is likely to use as a major poll plank in Punjab polls. It may be noted that Kejriwal’s promise of providing cheap power and free water to millions of Delhi households had played a major role in his party’s victory in the last assembly polls in Delhi.
The AAP convenor, who has announced to scrap and renegotiate the lopsided power purchase agreements with private companies which run power plants in Punjab, wants to use his ‘free power’ promise as a trump card to woo voters during the crucial electoral battle in Punjab.
Punjab's main opposition party AAP had alleged that "faulty" power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed during the tenure of the erstwhile SAD-BJP government were adversely affecting the state's power utility.
Sikh bodies to raise ‘Bargari Morcha’
The Sikh radical parties have decided to revive the Bargari Insaf Morcha and another agitation to trace the whereabouts of 328 Saroop of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS) ahead of the political campaign in Punjab. Jarnail Singh Sakhira, a close confidant of officiating parallel Jathedar of Akal Takht Bhai Dhian Singh Mand said that they would resume the Bargari Insaf Morcha in near future. The Morcha had begun on June 1, 2018, seeking justice for the sacrilege of SGGS in 2015.
Despite vowing to not end the morcha before reaching a logical conclusion, Mand lifted the morcha in December 2018 after promises by the government that were never fulfilled. Mand who was elected as the officiating parallel Jathedar of Akal Takht during a gathering of Sikhs held under the name of ‘Sarbat Khalsa’ had in recent past arrived at Golden Temple to seek forgiveness from Almighty for lifting the morcha and had also sought an apology from the ‘sangat’.
