Chandigarh, March 16 (PTI): The Aam Aadmi Party today alleged that its MLAs were neglected and were not even offered chairs to sit at the swearing-in-ceremony of the Amarinder Singh led Congress government in Punjab.
Attacking the Congress government on the day it took over, party leaders said it should come out of its “feudal mindset”.
In a statement, Dakha MLA H S Phoolka claimed that “this was the first time in the history, that while chief minister was taking oath of his office, the leader of main opposition party along with his colleagues was standing at the back of the pandal.”
Phoolka said the AAP MLAs don’t seek any VIP treatment but being the representatives of people, they should have at least been given seats to sit. The AAP MLAs follow a culture of simplicity, he claimed.
AAP’s Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira alleged that “the swearing-in-ceremony depicts the work culture of Congress and feudal mindset of Captain Amarinder Singh.”
He said AAP MLAs attended the function respecting the mandate of the people when Akali and BJP leaders were missing from the programme.
Khaira claimed that denying a chair to poeple’s representatives is like disrespecting the people of Punjab.
Congress failed to come out of its feudal mindset and the people will not accept such behaviour, he alleged.
“If Congress cannot organise a function properly then what else can the people of Punjab expect from them?” the Bholath MLA asked.
We wish that the Congress fulfills its promises of giving jobs, waive off loans of farmers, eradicate drugs from the state etc, he said adding that if the ruling party, it would have to feel the heat of ‘Aam Aadmi’ (common man).
Congress under the leadership of Amarinder had won 77 seats in the 117 member Assembly elections wresting power from the SAD-BJP alliance which was relegated to the third spot with 18 seats. New entrant AAP won 20 seats and two seats went to its ally Lok Insaaf Party.
