Teeing off with the Captain
Captain Amarinder Singh took a tea break at a dhaba in Khanna district near Chandigarh during his campaign last week. Sipping tea with the locals (and the media), he promised that the first thing he would do if elected back would be to check the drug menace and create employment. Clearly, this is a smart campaign dealing with the youth and new age issues. However, when asked by NewsX to name one failing and one plus point, he laughed and said, “Well, I am a nice chap, aren’t I?” Trust a politician to first pick on his plus point. But he did add that though he worked hard, he needed to work harder. Touché. Well, the result day also falls on his 75th birthday, so let’s see if the people of Punjab give him the birthday gift he wants. Having his last sip of tea, he commented that his tea was definitely sweeter than the PM’s. Now that’s a poll promise.
Clash of Emails
The fight between the AAP and Congress just got dirtier in Punjab, with both sides leaking fake emails, cutting down each other’s campaign. One email doing the rounds claims to have been written by Prashant Kishor to Sonia Gandhi, asking her not to campaign in Punjab as that’s a lost cause, and to keep Priyanka away as well. The email also adds that even the PM had refused the Akali demand to campaign in Punjab. This lie was nailed by Narendra Modi’s rally in Jallandhar later that week. To counter this, another email doing the rounds has AAP leader Sanjay Singh cautioning Arvind Kejriwal against campaigning in Punjab as the party was going to be wiped clean.
Sidhu vs Captain
Both the Akalis and AAP agree on one thing. The only reason that Navjot Sidhu would have joined the Congress would be if he had been promised some big ticket post. They were quite happy to claim he would be the CM face and not Amarinder Singh, to dent the Captain’s vote bank. But once Rahul Gandhi finally announced the obvious at a rally in Amritsar, that rumour-campaign has now shifted to making Sidhu Deputy CM. Let’s see if this is a googly or a sixer.
Campaign humour
Navjot Sidhu is happy giving interviews that he will hit the Akalis for a six. To counter that, Sukhbir Badal told the media that Sidhu would be caught out at the wicket by the Captain (Amarinder) himself.