Kejriwal begins Punjab election groundwork: Rakes up farmer suicide issue in the state

Chandigarh: Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday raked up farmers’ suicide issue in Punjab and claimed people of the state, which goes to polls next year, are “yearning” for a change. “Farmers are committing suicide and recently a farmer and his mother committed suicide,” Kejriwal, who was here to attend a Bar Council programme, said. He said the next Assembly election will not be just another election but a “revolution” which would uproot the “corrupt” and “non-performing” Akali-BJP regime. “We want to see a Punjab which is prosperous..let us make Punjab where no farmer commits suicide,” he said. Notably, unable to pay a loan, a farmer and his elderly mother committed suicide on Tuesday at Jodhpur village allegedly when a commission agent, alongwith police and revenue officials, was trying to take possession of his land. The Delhi Chief Minister was here to distribute licences to young law graduates of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to practice law. It was for the first time that a chief minister from other state attended such a ceremony of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana. [caption id=“attachment_2755052” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of Arvind Kejriwal. AFP[/caption] Until now, only the CMs, the Governors, other minister of Punjab and Haryana, judges or legal luminaries have been coming to attend such events of the Bar Council. He claimed that in Punjab assembly polls next year, AAP’s performance will be good and “Congress will go to zero while Akalis will be reduced below 10 seats”. Seeking to project a pro-farmer face of his government in Delhi, Kejriwal said when crops were damaged due to rains in the national capital earlier, some farmers had approached him and he immediately accompanied them to their fields. He claimed more and more people are accepting the AAp’s model of governance and trying to replicate it and added if polls were to be held today in Delhi, AAP will win all 70 seats. Kejriwal claimed (AAP) has adopted zero tolerance towards corruption, adding a handful of corrupt people have made the entire system corrupt, which needs a “broom” to clean itself. “Although majority of citizens of the country are honest, a few corrupt people have ruined the system of largest democracy. To revamp the system God has given us ‘broom’ to clean it. Enough is enough, we have to stand up against corruption,” Kejriwal told the gathering of lawyers. About the working of the AAP government in Delhi, Kejriwal said “We have laid emphasiss on Education and Health as we know that an educated and healthy society is an asset in nation building to achieve new height of developed India.” “We have changed the face of government schools, Mohalla Clinics opened by the Delhi government are being praised not only in India but in US too,” Kejriwal claimed. He said the ‘Odd-Even formula’ is being appreciated by public to save environment and claimed now “China is adopting the same formula”.