Following the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) stunning performance at the recently concluded Delhi Assembly elections, People's Party of Punjab president Manpreet Singh Badal today said the myth that new political parties cannot stand on their own has been busted.
"A myth had been created that new parties could never stand on their own. That has been busted now. I congratulate AAP for their great show," former Punjab Finance Minister and estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, said today.
In the Delhi elections, the AAP decimated the ruling Congress bagging 28 of the total 70 seats while BJP won 31 and Congress was restrained to a humiliating eight.
Manpreet had also floated his PPP after breaking his ties with the Shiromani Akali Dal, but failed to taste electoral success when it contested the Punjab Assembly polls last year.
He, however, feels PPP is identical to the AAP ideologically and much of the Kejriwal-led party's success had to do with "higher literacy rate among the people of Delhi than Punjab and mass mediums like vast FM radio network, which helped him to get the message across to the electorate."
He said Kejriwal's party has given a signal that new parties too can turn the table and it was a clear message that people are now fed up with national parties and want corruption-free governance.
He also said that his outfit had learnt many things from AAP and now he would try to incorporate changes in it.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference organised in the memory of Dr BR Ambedkar, Manpreet termed the recently held two-day mega Punjab Investment Summit a farce.
He alleged that the land will be acquired from farmers and handed over to rich business houses, who will resell it back to Punjabis.
"In the end the poor farmer will lose his land, and the Punjabis will repurchase it at exorbitant prices. Such an exercise will only benefit the rich, and will continue with the process of pauperisation of Punjab," he further alleged.
He also claimed that there are businessmen and industrialists who have moved out of Punjab "because of harassment, intimidation and bribe demands.
