Kejriwal helping forces wanting to disturb Punjab peace: Rahul

New Delhi:  Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi said many anti-national forces were raising their ugly head and we must prevent the state and country from such forces.

On the last day of the poll campaign in Punjab, Rahul addressed a gathering in Ballian village here and referred to the Tuesday night’s car explosion in Maur Mandi, which left six dead.

Launching an all-out attack against Arvind Kejriwal in the backdrop of the Maur Mandi blast, Rahul accused him of “helping” forces who want to disturb Punjab’s peace and push it back to the dark days of militancy.

The blast had occurred shortly after the “jansabha” of Congress candidate Harminder Singh Jassi, who is contesting the February 4 elections from Maur Assembly seat.

Talking about drugs, Rahul said ‘chitta’ had destroyed Punjab and their party on assuming power would end the problem of drugs.

He said the Congress would arrest all smugglers of drugs and confiscate their properties.

Rahul said they would clear all backlog of jobs and improve health facilities. He said the Congress would take effective steps to maintain law and order.

He urged voters not to switch from “one radical party to another”.

“The most important thing is the atmosphere you live in.

If that atmosphere gets spoiled, violence starts or anger prevails, then the work of farmers, labourers, weaker sections suffers, entire state suffers,” Rahul said.

Taking a veiled dig at the ruling Akalis and the AAP, Rahul said, “from one extremist thinking, Punjab should not go to other extremist thinking. Congress is one such party which takes all sections along. We want that Punjab should rapidly progress.”

“But if violence breaks, anger prevails, then everything will be destroyed. We have to understand that those forces, which destroyed Punjab earlier (referring to militancy period in the state), because of whom violence broke, such forces are yet again raising their head.”

“Bomb blast took place and six people died (Maur). Arvind Kejriwal, who is Delhi’s Chief Minister, is helping these forces and helping them raise their head. And this is most dangerous thing for Punjab.

“If these forces raise their head again, then entire agenda will be hijacked and Punjab will look in some other direction,” he warned.

Rahul said, “So, it is necessary all of us together, be from any religion, caste or creed, we all should again stand up so that we can build a Punjab, which was known for its spirit of giving, a path as shown Guru Nanak Dev and Guru Gobind Singh.”

Addressing the gathering while sitting on a cot with villagers and farmers of Ballian here, Rahul also talked about farmers issues, saying during UPA’s time loans of farmers amounting to Rs 70,000 crore were waived off and promised that if Congress forms the next government in the state, the burden of state’s farmers will be lessened.

After interacting with local villagers, Rahul also sat on a mat and shared food with them.

From Sangrur constituency, Congress has fielded its former MP Vijay Inder Singla, who was also present. — PTI inputs

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