Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Punjab CM Mann asks voters to breach SAD 'fort' Ferozepur; promises to turn Sukhvilas into school

Ferozepur/Bathinda: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday asked voters of the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat to vote for the AAP and end the Akali Dal supremacy in the constituency.

He also said the luxury hotel Sukhvilas, built by SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, will be converted into a school.

Mann made the remarks while addressing a public meeting in support of AAP candidate Jagdeep Singh Kaka Brar, who is contesting the Ferozepur seat.

"In the 2022 assembly elections, you defeated stalwarts. This time the fort of Ferozepur also has to be demolished, meaning that the Akali Dal should lose from Ferozepur," Mann said.

The Ferozepur seat is currently represented by Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal, who will not contest this time.

"They have built 'Sukhvilas' in the mountains. The government will take its possession. It has been built with money looted from the people. We will not demolish it. We will convert into a school," the CM said.

In February this year, Mann had alleged that the Badal family had taxes worth Rs 108 crore waived for a Mohali-based luxury hotel Sukhvilas through a 'tailor-made' eco-tourism policy during the Akali regime.

Mann said that all the people of the Badal family have lost the elections in the recent past.

"Only Harsimrat Kaur Badal is left. In this election, Harsimrat Kaur's security deposit is going to be forfeited from the Bathinda seat. After that, everyone in the Badal family will be defeated. Then they will not blame each other saying 'you lost', 'you lost' because everyone will be a loser," he said.

Mann said the 'dynastic and traditional politicians' of Punjab are upset that people from ordinary households became MLAs, ministers, and a chief minister.

"These people considered power their birthright and treated positions as their ancestral estates," he said.

He also took a dig at former finance minister Manpreet Badal alleging that it was his wont to cite an empty state treasury when he was in the post.

"We have never said this to date. We are filling the Punjab government's exchequer," he said.

"We have given 43,000 government jobs in the last two years. A total of 829 Aam Aadmi clinics have been built where two crore people have gotten free treatment. Schools of Eminence have been opened," said Mann.

"This year, around 2.5 lakh children changed their schools and got themselves enrolled in government schools. I want to change your compulsion into your choice. Today, it is your compulsion to enrol your children in a private school and get treatment in private hospitals because you do not trust government schools and hospitals yet."

"In the coming days, I will make government schools and hospitals so good that choosing private schools and hospitals will be your choice, not compulsion," said Mann.

In the two years of his government, the state has provided 300 units of free electricity to the people and purchased a private thermal power plant, he said.

Later, Mann took out a roadshow in Bathinda garnering support for Gurmeet Singh Khuddian.