Kejriwal, Mann sound AAP poll bugle with 'Kejriwal in Parliament too’ slogan

With general elections around the corner, AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Singh Mann on Friday (March 7) sounded the poll bugle and launched the party's Lok Sabha poll campaign in Delhi with the slogan 'Sansad mein bhi Kejriwal, to Dilli hogi aur khush haal' (Delhi will be more prosperous with Kejriwal in Parliament).

General elections are due in April–May.

The campaign was launched in the presence of other party leaders and workers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headquarters on DDU Marg in Delhi.

"I have made all efforts to serve the people of Delhi who are my family," Kejriwal said. "Our slogan is 'Sansad mein bhi Kejriwal, to Dilli hogi aur khush haal' (Delhi will be more prosperous with Kejriwal in Parliament)," he said.

Delhi and Punjab are ruled by AAP and these are the only two states that have free electricity supply, he said.

Kejriwal said the BJP-led central government through the Delhi Lt Governor stalls every project launched by the AAP government and urged the people to "strengthen" him by sending all seven opposition candidates to Parliament.

"They hate you because you elected and brought an ordinary man to power in Delhi. They demolished Mohalla Clinics with bulldozers, they stopped door-to-door ration delivery scheme, tests and medicines in hospitals," he alleged.

AAP workers will distribute pamphlets describing work done by the party's governments during campaigning for the elections, he said.

Punjab Chief Minister Mann said his state is going to have a 13-0 result in the Lok Sabha polls in favour of AAP. He also accused the Centre of obstructing the work of the Kejriwal government in Delhi and withholding Punjab's funds. "No one will dare to stop Punjab's funds and work in Delhi if the AAP has a good number of MPs in Lok Sabha," he said.

The AAP will fight the general election in collaboration with INDIA bloc partner Congress under a seat-sharing arrangement it has struck with it in Delhi, Gujarat, and Haryana. In Punjab, however, both parties have decided to contest the Lok Sabha polls independently.

The AAP will contest four of the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and Congress will field its candidates on the remaining three.

The party has also received two constituencies – Bharuch and Jamnagar – in Gujarat and Kurukshetra in Haryana under the seat-sharing deal with the Congress.

Separately, AAP has also declared its candidates from Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Sonitpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam.

(With agency inputs)