Elect BJP mayor to accelerate development Union minister Bittu to Patiala voters

Chandigarh, Dec 11 (PTI) Union Minister Ravneet Singh Bittu Wednesday appealed to voters in Patiala to elect a BJP mayor in the upcoming civic polls, saying such a person can "directly" approach the prime minister and other Union ministers to accelerate the city's development.
    Elections to five municipal corporations -- Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara -- and 44 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on December 21.
    Accusing the AAP government in Punjab of "doing nothing" for the state, Bittu said, "The AAP volunteers, on whose back the government was formed, are nowhere to be seen. They have all been completely ignored by the party which has given tickets to defectors (of other parties)."
    "A BJP mayor will facilitate the initiation of large projects for Patiala's development, just like in other states such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, which have already benefitted from the BJP's development agenda," he said in Patiala.
    "If you choose BJP mayors, they can go directly to the prime minister, home minister and other Union ministers and bring projects for the city development. Vote for development, vote for BJP. The Punjab government has completely failed, so there's no need to vote for AAP's candidates," Bittu said.
    The Union minister alleged that at the behest of the AAP government, BJP candidates were not being given the no-objection certificates needed to file nominations for the municipal corporation polls.
    Senior BJP leader Preneet Kaur alleged that BJP candidates were being "pressured and threatened" by the AAP government in Patiala.
    "We have received reports that policemen are being sent to their homes to intimidate them. Our district president was threatened by the police team. This is a clear violation of democratic principles and the Constitution," she said.
    "We will file FIRs and cases against them, whether through the Election Commission or court intervention. We have asked our workers to make videos of such incidents and file complaints straightaway. We are in direct contact with the Central government over this and will not let them indulge in such undemocratic actions again," Kaur added.
    Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party announced its first list of candidates for the upcoming urban local bodies elections on Wednesday.
    The party's Punjab unit president Aman Arora highlighted the developmental work carried out by the state government over the past two-and-a-half years.
    "AAP's track record in urban and rural development has won the people's trust as evidenced by their resounding support in recent panchayat and by-elections," he said.
    "AAP has adopted a grassroots approach for candidate selection. We received an overwhelming response with over 5,000 applications for 977 wards in just a few days. In some wards, we received as many as 15-20 applications per seat. This reflects the people's faith in our governance and policies," Arora said.
    The first list includes 94 wards of Ludhiana, 56 wards of Patiala and 74 wards of Amritsar, he added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)