‘Trickster, hypocrite…’: Sidhu on AAP chief Kejriwal's phone survey for CM face
In a letter to the Election commission of India (ECI), Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is a “habitual liar” and the phone survey of his party was a “deceptive scheme” to fool the people of Punjab.
Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday filed a complaint with the Election Commission of India (ECI) against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal over the latter's ‘Janta chunegi Apna CM’ campaign.
Addressing a press briefing earlier in the day, Sidhu called Kejriwal a “trickster” and a “hypocrite”, and said that one cannot fool everyone all the time. The Congress leader further stated that Kejriwal is a “habitual liar" who when confronted, goes on an apologetic spree.
“[The] AAP is creating propaganda suggesting and projecting that they have chosen Bhagwant Mann as their chief ministerial face on the basis of the survey conducted by their political party through telephonic calls,” Sidhu wrote in the letter to EC.
Notably, on January 13, Kejriwal launched a phone number wherein people could send their suggestions on the chief ministerial face of Punjab. The number was open till 5pm of January 17. On January 19, Kejriwal announced that Bhagwant Mann, AAP's Punjab chief, would be the party's CM face after he received 93.3% of responses on the phone number.
Sidhu mentioned in his letter as many as “21,59,475 telephonic calls, voice messages, Whatsapp messages” that the AAP's phone number received within “a short time span of just four days” is not “mathematically logical.”
The Punjab Congress chief further noted that such calls usually take at least 15 seconds, and going by that logic, only 5,760 calls can be received in one day and that shall sum up to “23,040 calls in four days.” Sidhu asked the EC to direct the AAP to close the campaign and also issue a public retraction.
During the briefing, Sidhu said that the campaign is a “deceptive scheme” to trick people. “He is trying to create an illusion and fake perception,” he told media persons during the event.
Notably, Mann has been fielded by the AAP from Dhuri constituency. The Kejriwal-led camp is aiming to come to power in Punjab for the first time. The ruling dispensation led by Congress saw a massive blow last year when party veteran and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh resigned. He later launched his own party Punjab Lok Congress and forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the upcoming Punjab assembly elections.
Punjab will go into polls on February 20 and counting of the votes will take place on March 10.