category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa Wednesday said the ruling AAP is targeting him with baseless allegations as he opposed the Arvind Kejriwal-led outfit s move seeking support from his party against the Centre s ordinance on control of services in the national capital. Bajwa has rejected the allegations by AAP leaders led by Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema who have accused him of insulting the Dalit community with his alleged comments against AAP legislator Labh Singh Ugoke. The leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly is under fire from the Aam Aadmi Party leaders who alleged that he mocked Ugoke who had once run a mobile repair shop. Bajwa, while speaking at the office of a Punjabi daily in Jalandhar a few days ago, had reportedly said one of them (who became AAP MLAs) was a mobile charger . He was referring to Bhadaur legislator Ugoke who defeated former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi in the 2022 assembly polls. AAP leader Cheema had alleged that Bajwa was unable to digest a mobile repairman becoming an MLA and also asked the Congress leader to apologise for his statement within a week. Addressing the media here on Wednesday, Bajwa said he did not say anything wrong nor made any casteist remark and added he just wanted to say that the AAP leaders have double standards . Finance Minister Cheema levelled completely baseless charges against me and it really pained me. In 45 years of my political career, nobody has ever made such allegations against me, said Bajwa who was accompanied by party s Dalit MLAs including Aruna Chaudhary, Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, Raj Kumar, Sukhwinder Singh Kotli, and party MP Amar Singh. He accused the AAP leaders of receiving directions from their party leaders from Delhi to level allegations against him in order to tarnish his image. Bajwa claimed that Cheema was directed to level absurd allegations against him by AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal. Accusing the AAP of distorting his speech, Bajwa said he had never uttered a single word against the Dalit, Scheduled Castes or OBC. Rather, I acknowledge that these are the communities that have been supporting the Congress party unconditionally for a long time, he said. The Qadian MLA said he has always respected the Dalit community. Bajwa said Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal had sought time from Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party leader Rahul Gandhi for a meeting on the issue of Centre s ordinance. I and many colleagues had opposed it. We understand that AAP is the B team of RSS...they are the two sides of the same coin. We had told (Congress leadership) not to give time for the meeting, said Bajwa. He said Kejriwal has still not got time from the Congress leadership for the meeting and that was why they were upset . On May 29, Congress chief Kharge had convened separate meetings of leaders from Punjab and Delhi to seek their opinion on the ordinance issue. A majority of the leaders had told the leadership to have no truck with Kejriwal, calling him a B-team of the BJP and claiming that he harmed the Congress interests not only in Delhi and Punjab but other states as well. AAP chief Kejriwal has been reaching out to leaders of non-BJP parties to garner their support against the ordinance so that the Centre s bid to replace it through a Bill is defeated when it is brought in Parliament. Replying to a query, Bajwa said, Why should I seek an apology I have said nothing wrong. He also challenged Cheema to ask his party leader Kejriwal to implement his promise of making a leader from the Dalit community as deputy chief minister in Punjab. Kejriwal had made this promise in 2016, ahead of the 2017 Punjab assembly polls. Bajwa also accused the AAP government of not having any Dalit lawyer in the Advocate General office. Even after being 15 months into the government, the AAP has failed to appoint the state s Scheduled Caste Commission chairperson, he said. (editor dailyworld.in)