DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday held a roadshow in Haryana's Kurukshetra and said "democracy and constitution are in danger and we have to save it". Mann was campaigning for the INDIA bloc candidate Sushil Gupta, who is Aam Aadmi Party's Haryana unit chief and contesting from the parliamentary seat.

The roadshow passed through various parts of the holy city. Mann was accompanied by Gupta, the party's state unit senior vice-president Anurag Dhanda and Congress leader Ashok Arora.

Mann was standing atop an open truck during the roadshow while party workers holding party flags were walking along the vehicle.

"Today, democracy, constitution are in danger, we have to save it. This battle is about saving democracy, constitution. This battle is not of any individual," Mann said while attacking the BJP.

He was addressing a gathering of people towards the end of his roadshow.

Referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest last month, Mann said such a message should reach him from Kurukshetra that people are firmly standing behind him.

"BJP people think by putting Arvind Kejriwal in jail they will finish the Aam Aadmi Party. They are mistaken, they may imprison Kejriwal, but how will they imprison his thinking," he said.

"Kejriwal rules people's hearts. He is your 'Haryana ka Lal' (referring to Kejriwal's Haryana origins). He changed the country's politics," he said.

Further attacking the ruling BJP at the Centre, Mann said, "They also sent Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren to jail, freezed Congress party's accounts, and carried out ED raids in Mamata Banerjee ruled West Bengal. They think they can scare the (opposition) leaders... I want to ask them but how will they scare 140 crore people in this country?"

Our freedom fighters shed blood for this country after which we attained freedom. The BJP people are not custodian of this country, it is the 140 crore people who are and they will decide," said Mann.

Mann said that AAP believes in "politics of work" and has delivered on what it promised to people of Punjab and in Delhi--be it giving free power, free treatment, giving good education.

Towards the end of his speech, Mann again took a dig at the BJP when he waved a purse before the public, which he said had been lost by someone from the crowd and had been found.

Mann said that a purse had been found and flashed it before the crowds to ask whether it belonged to anyone.

AAP leader Anurag Dhanda told Mann that the person to whom it belonged has been spotted. After this, Mann said, "Look, this is the difference.. BJP wale aapke batve jeb say nikalte hai, hum aapke batve vapas dete hai (BJP people take out your purses from your pockets, but we return them)".

"The purses which you lost because of corruption, we will find them and hand them back to you," he further told the crowds.

As part of the opposition's INDIA bloc, AAP is fighting from one seat in Haryana while Congress will field its candidates on the remaining nine. Polling for 10 LS seats in Haryana will be held in the sixth phase of general elections on May 25.

BJP has fielded industrialist and former MP Naveen Jindal from Kurukshetra while INLD's senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala has entered the fray as party candidate. Notably, as Punjab Chief Minister, Mann visited Haryana on several occasions in the past for various party-related events along with Arvind Kejriwal.

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Kejriwal was arrested last month by the Enforcement Directorate in an excise policy-linked money laundering case. He had been sent to judicial custody till April 15.
(editor@dailyworld.in)