Amrinder Singh says Punjab only for Punjabis, attacks AAP by claiming it will bring anarchy

Mounting an attack on Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leader Amarinder Singh said on Sunday “Punjab is only for Punjabis” and warned the people that the AAP leader would “unleash chaos and disorder” in the state too “as he had done in Delhi”.

“What the Akalis have done to Punjab in 10 years, Kejriwal has done to Delhi in just a year,” he said, referring to “chaos and disorder prevailing” in the national capital.

His remarks came as the AAP supremo arrived in the state for the second time in less than three weeks to steer the party’s campaign for the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls.

Amarinder said he firmly believes that “Punjab is only for Punjabis”, to whichever party or group they belong, adding that he will “fight against” Kejriwal from whichever seat he decides to contest in the upcoming polls.

The state Congress chief said as he feared “large-scale bungling” by the ruling combine in Punjab in the upcoming polls, he had already approached the Election Commission (EC) for deployment of central forces and arranging for EVMs from outside the state.

Amarinder said if his party comes to power in the state, it would take “all the required legislative and executive steps” to create more jobs for the unemployed youth and stressed on the need for industrialisation of the state.

Speaking at his ‘Halke Vich Captain’ programme, the former chief minister said industrialisation was the “only solution” to provide jobs to the nearly 90 lakh unemployed youth in the 18-40 age group in the state.

Amarinder said he would take all the measures to provide a “conducive environment” to the industries, including providing “cheap” electricity and land.

Ropar-Gurdaspur would be developed as an “industrial belt” on a priority basis, he added.

The Congress leader cautioned the people against the “alluring promises” of the Aam Aadmi Party and Kejriwal who, he said, had “adopted confrontation as a way of life”.

He alleged that while Delhi was fighting dengue and chikungunya, Kejriwal “hospitalised himself” in Bengaluru and his deputy chief minister and other ministers were “holidaying in Europe”.