Jalandhar: BSP leader and party’s Jalandhar candidate Balwinder Kumar addressed the media for the second time on Monday this week and alleged that he was being given step-motherly treatment as a Lok Sabha election candidate in the AAP government. They also alleged similar discrimination by government departments (such as law enforcement agencies) before the elections.
Earlier, Balwinder Kumar had addressed a press conference on Tuesday on the issues of security allocation and how he was treated differently compared to other parties.
Balwinder Kumar, who was also the BSP candidate from Jalandhar in the last Lok Sabha elections, got more than 2 lakh votes in the 2019 general elections and got about 33,000 votes in Kartarpur during the 2022 assembly elections.
Addressing the media, Balwinder Kumar alleged, “AAP keeps raising the issue that injustice has been done with the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. We wish to point out that AAP has misused the state machinery for its own selfish interests in the last two years. While law enforcement and the law itself should be equal for all, our workers have been targeted for things that if you leaders had done, there would have been no action.
Balwinder Kumar questioned the alleged presence of police officers at the inauguration of AAP’s Kartarpur office after the 2022 elections. He also expressed apprehension about the spread of drugs in the Kartarpur constituency and alleged that despite complaints, it was not addressed.
“The police system should be neutral. But despite AAP’s public claims of being ‘Qatar Honest’, our workers started receiving false complaints against them, forcing us to stage a protest. Rampant drug abuse in Kartarpur resulted in multiple deaths in a single village. There is a drug problem in Jandu Singha and Dhogari village belt. We had staged a protest in Maqsudan on July 23 last year on this issue.
Balwinder Kumar further alleged, “Despite the fact that we (BSP leaders) did not block the highway, a case was registered against 163 of our workers and leaders, including me. It was just a 30-45 minute protest. The case was suspiciously transferred to Hoshiarpur, and is pending. This is yet to be resolved. We were never called for hearing, even though we provided a video that we did not block traffic.
BSP also held a road show in Jalandhar yesterday evening, Balwinder Kumar raised questions on the lack of security. In his press conference on Tuesday, he had raised questions on the lack of security despite security being allotted to BJP, Congress and AAP candidates.
He said, “During our road show yesterday evening, police personnel accompanied us and controlled the traffic till Wadala Chowk. But when we crossed it and started the rural area, the police personnel went away. Buses and cars participated in our road show. We escaped with only injuries. Only one vehicle and two policemen were left with our convoy.
Gujjar leader RP Singh joins SAD
Nawanshahr: Congress leader from Balachaur assembly constituency Chaudhary RP Singh joined Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) during the Punjab Bachao Yatra here on Monday. On his joining, Sukhbir Badal said that RP Singh was a prominent Gujjar community leader and his joining the party would strengthen SAD in Balachaur. The SAD president, who visited Balachaur and Garhshankar assembly constituencies along with the party’s Sri Anandpur Sahib candidate Professor Prem Singh Chandumajra, said he was confident that Punjabis would support his regional party in the parliamentary elections.
