Arvind Kejriwal at Bhiwani: What will common man get from one nation, one election?

The Delhi Chief Minister further said: “I have seen that these BJP men have started a new shigufa (rumour) of one nation-one election. What will we achieve from one election or ten elections or 12 elections? Does aam aadmi will get anything from one nation-one election, one nation-100 election, one nation-thousand election.”

Insisting for equal and better facilities in the field of education and health, the AAP leader said: “All should get equal education. The education a child of Ambani and Adani get, the similar education should be provided to the child of farmer and majdoor. The rich as well as the poor should get good health treatment.”

Kejriwal’s statement came a day after the Centre notified an eight-member high-level committee to examine and make recommendations at the earliest on the issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats.

Earlier in the day too, Kejriwal had taken to X (formerly Twitter) to question the rationale behind ‘One nation, One election’, wondering what the common man will get from such an arrangement. “What is important for the country? One Nation One Election Or One Nation One Education (Rich or poor, equal good education for all). One Nation One Treatment (Rich or poor, equal treatment for all) “What will the common man get from One Nation One Election?” he posted on X in Hindi. Kejriwal, who visited Bhiwani along with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for a party programme, alleged that people in Haryana were fed up with the present dispensation and said they wanted a change.

Kejriwal, whose native place Siwani falls in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, gave a call to the party workers to tell them about his connection to the state. The party has plans to visit every family in Haryana from Monday as part of its “parivar jogo programme”. “Unko batana hai ki Kejriwal Haryana ka hi hai, mhara hi chhora hai. Agar usne Dilli theek kar di to Haryana me to bula lo Kejriwal ne. Haryana bhi theek kar dega wo. (Tell the people that Kejriwal is from Haryana itself. He is our son. If he has fixed problems in Delhi, he should be given a chance in Haryana too. He will fix problems in Haryana too.”

Claiming that there is an undercurrent in Haryana for a political change, the AAP leader also said: “After Punjab, we will come to power in Haryana. When the Aam Aadmi Party will form government in Haryana, there will be free electricity in the state like in Delhi and Punjab. There were 10-10 hour long power cuts in Punjab one and half years back. (After formation of the AAP government) the electricity supply has been round-the-clock in Punjab, that too for free.”

Kejriwal claimed that there was an oath ceremony of nearly 4,000 local office-bearers in Bhiwani event Sunday. The party had earlier stated that Kejriwal will administer the oath to the newly appointed over 1,500 circle incharges of local units in Bhiwani Sunday. According to the party, each of them has been appointed for five wards in urban areas and for villages in rural areas..

VIDEO | “BJP is talking about ‘one nation, one election’ but we want ‘one nation, one education’ where the children of poor and rich get an equal level of education,” says Delhi CM @ArvindKejriwal in Bhiwani, Haryana. pic.twitter.com/UmQ5jrxymX

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 3, 2023

Kejriwal said: “In next one and half month, there will be a committee of ten persons at every polling booth of Haryana. There are 19,500 booths in Haryana. There will be as many as 2 lakh office-bearers in Haryana till October 15 this year. I don’t think BJP has such a large organisation (in Haryana). I don’t think BJP, Congress or another party has workers in such big numbers. I don’t think there are just 1,000 workers who work wholeheartedly for the BJP (in Haryana).”

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday targeted the BJP, saying it is “living in arrogance” after winning the Lok Sabha elections twice and said that people will break their “arrogance”.

Mann was addressing a gathering of office bearers and party workers of the Haryana unit of AAP in Bhiwani where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was also present.

“They (BJP) are living in arrogance. They have become arrogant after winning elections twice. You can see their arrogance. Public breaks arrogance,” Mann said. Lashing out at the BJP, Mann said every day, they come out with a new lie and a new ”jumla”. “As elections in the country are near, these days Bharatiya Janata Party’s ‘jumla’ making factory is working round-the-clock because they have to sell these in the 2024 polls,” alleged Mann.

Every promise they made has turned out to be a “jumla”, he said. Referring to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s statement in which he said many parties offer freebies to the public, Mann said the AAP is providing free electricity, free medicine and free education, adding that not even a single rupee of debt was raised in Delhi and Punjab for ensuring these facilities. He said the AAP dispensations have plugged revenue leakage and the state coffers are being filled.

Referring to Punjab, Mann said a corruption-free government was running in the state.

He said a WhatsApp number has been given to the public for sharing any video or photo of bribe being sought by any government official.

More than 400 people have been jailed on corruption charges so far, he said.

Mann said a few days ago, ‘patwaris’ (revenue officials) came out in support of one of their colleagues who was caught on bribery charges.

The revenue officials then decided to hold a pen-down strike in protest against the vigilance action, the chief minister said.

He further said his government has decided to fill posts of 2,000 ‘patwaris’.

Mann said the AAP made electricity free in Punjab as was done in Delhi.

“Arvind Kejriwal made power free in Delhi. In Punjab too we made this promise and now nearly 90 per cent households get zero bills for electricity consumption in Punjab and power is available round-the-clock. We had guaranteed this and we fulfilled it,” Mann said.

More than 35,000 government jobs have been given in Punjab in one-and-a-half years. Apart from this, big companies are coming to Punjab, he added.-With PTI inputs