Claiming that elections at the “lower level” are rigged, Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, has said that rather than the forthcoming local bodies election in the state, the next test for AAP’s popularity would be the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. He said that in 2019, AAP “will win at least eight of thirteen Lok Sabha seats in Punjab”. At an AAP rally in Khanna’s village Issru on Tuesday, Khaira said: “There is booth capturing and rigging at various levels in the lower level polls. The forthcoming lower level polls will almost be rigged. There will be booth capturing and discrepancies at various levels. Now, our real test is in 2019 when the parliamentary elections are due. We will take up your issues, AAP is the only party which will take up the issues of the people. We are not the ones who sit in AC rooms and unaware of ground reality. We are going to win at least 8-9 seats from Punjab in Lok Sabha polls and it is then going to form the base for AAP government in Punjab in 2022.” Asked to elabortate on what he meant by “lower level” polls, and if his allegation included recently held Punjab Assembly polls, Khair told The Indian Express, “Our party has already filed complaints against discrepancies in voting machines (EVMs). Certainly, the polls were not fair. But by lower level polls, I also mean the upcoming MC/gram panchayat polls. We will contest them, but everyone knows that incumbent government wins them by hook or crook. So, our real test is in 2019.” He said that people of Punjab and AAP volunteers should now pull up their socks and get ready for the ‘real battle’ in 2019. “Good that we are in opposition currently. People can see how we are working and taking up their issues as opposition. AAP volunteers have got much needed break. Now, they should be prepared for the real battle in 2019 and then in 2022,” said Khaira. “But then AAP workers should also not indulge in any unlawful activity. Don’t be scared but we will not protect those who will do something against the law,” he said. Targeting both PM Narendra Modi and Punjab CM Captian Amarinder Singh, Khaira said that neither SAD-BJP nor Congress was going to do anything for Punjab. “Do you think Captain is going to touch any Akali or put Badals behind the bars? No, he can’t because he himself is corrupt. He is a buddha sher (old tiger) who is not only unwell now, but can’t do anything against corrupt because of his own corrupt deeds. Have you heard any Akali speaking against Rana Gurjit Singh for mining scam?,” questioned Khaira. He also flayed Modi over the death of children at a Gorakhpur hospital and alleged that “this government is only working for the corporate houses”. “Modi didn’t have slightest mercy to come out with a word of sympathy for protesting farmers from Tamil Nadu?,” he said. Meanwhile, AAP state president Bhagwant Mann also addressed the rally and said: “Since seventy years, Prime Ministers have been delivering the speeches at the Red Fort written by their officers without any know how of the ground reality. Now even the walls of the Red Fort must be remembering the same words being repeated since 70 years.” He also said that ‘in 2019, AAP is going to win majority seats from Punjab in Lok Sabha polls.’ Mann accused CM Amarinder of going back on all his promises. The political conferences at Issru are held annually to mark the martyrdom day of revolutionary Karnail Singh Issru, who died during the liberation of Goa from Portuguese.
