Chandigarh: AAP will face a "humiliating defeat" in the July 10 bypoll to the Jalandhar West assembly constituency in Punjab, senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa asserted on Friday.
The bypoll, necessitated by the resignation of Sheetal Angural as AAP MLA, will be held on July 10 and the votes counted on July 13.
Bajwa, the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, said AAP managed to get third position in the Jalandhar West assembly segment, which is part of the Jalandhar parliamentary constituency, in the Lok Sabha polls.
"In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress got 44,000 votes, BJP 42,000 votes and the AAP got only 15,000 votes from the Jalandhar West assembly segment. One can easily assess the mood of the voters from this assembly segment," Bajwa said in a statement.
"Both AAP and BJP candidates backstabbed the voters of Jalandhar West. And now the voters of this segment will teach these turncoats a befitting lesson," he added.
AAP nominee Mohinder Bhagat and the BJP's Angural "deceived" the voters of Jalandhar West by switching parties, the senior Congress leader claimed and asserted they had no moral right to go to the voters to seek support.
"Both of them changed their loyalties. They were least bothered about the miseries and woes of Jalandhar West residents," Bajwa said.
Bhagat quit the BJP and joined the AAP last year while Angural switched to the saffron party after leaving the Arvind Kejrwal-led party earlier this year.
"The former AAP MLA Sheetal Angural remained MLA from Jalandhar West for over two years. However, he cannot count a single developmental work that he carried out in this assembly segment," Bajwa said.
Bhagat switched to AAP just because he wanted to enjoy the comfort of power, he alleged.
The opposition leader said the Congress valued the democratic setup the most.
"The Congress candidate from Jalandhar West Surinder Kaur is the most sincere candidate of all," he said.
Published 05 July 2024, 17:00 IST