Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh
The crushing defeat for AAP and its breakaway factions in the recent Lok Sabha elections seems to have forced them to join hands.
Sources said AAP state convener Bhagawant Mann had extended an olive branch to former Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Khaira and Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu.
The sources said Mann called up both Khaira and Sandhu yesterday. Khaira confirmed that Mann rang him up, but he didn’t say a word about unity.
He said Mann told him that since he had been elected to Parliament, he needed their help to raise issues related to Punjab.
When asked Khaira about the prospects of unity, he categorically said the first condition before any discussion would be that AAP must ensure that they won’t have any poll pact with the Congress in Delhi. “We can’t even think of joining any party, which thinks of unity with the Congress or the SAD,” he said.
This development is being seen as an attempt to revive AAP for the 2022 Vidhan Sabha elections.
Sandhu, who has been seeking unity in AAP, also confirmed that he got a call from Mann. It was just a courtesy call, he wanted some information on moving a private member’s Bill in Parliament, he said, adding that there was no mention of unity. Mann could not be contacted, but in a television interview, he confirmed that he wanted to take along both leaders.
AAP, which had won 20 Assembly seats by getting 24 per cent votes in 2017, couldn’t do well in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Except Mann, all the candidates of the party had lost their deposit.
