Chandigarh: Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government on Monday decided to convene a special session of state Assembly on September 22 for “seeking confidence of the people of state”.
“The people of the state had given thumping majority to our government but some forces inimical to democratic values are trying to lure our MLAs with money. So we have decided to seek confidence from people of state in this special session,” Chief Minister Mann said.
He unequivocally said that the MLAs of his Aam Aadmi Party are non-purchasable as they are committed to the ideology of the party, and “nefarious attempts to destabilise the government had failed in Punjab too as the party MLAs are loyal to the people of the state”.
Mann said this special session will clear the mystery regarding conspiracy to topple the democratically-elected government in Punjab.
All the parties had tried to lure the voters with money during the state Assembly polls but people stood with the AAP and elected these MLAs, and now these MLAs will repose their confidence in progress of Punjab and prosperity of its people, he said, adding that these MLAs are loyal to party, people and the state, adding that they will never sell their conscience for a few pennies.
He asked the anti-Punjab forces to stop daydreaming about toppling the elected government in Punjab as Punjabis will never forgive them for this sin.
Mann said that all MLAs of AAP will make strenuous efforts to restore the pristine glory of the state.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal asked Mann not to enact the drama of a confidence vote, saying bribery allegations could only be verified by an independent inquiry by the CBI or the high court and that no purpose could be achieved by calling a special session of the Vidhan Sabha.
In a statement here, the SAD President said: “We had forewarned Punjabis that the AAP government will ape its counterpart in Delhi who had also called a special session of the state assembly after allegedly ‘defeating’ attempts by the BJP to poach its legislators.”
He said now the same was being done in Punjab at the expense of the state exchequer despite the fact that the government enjoyed a brute majority and there was no demand from it to subject itself to a confidence vote.
Asking the Chief Minister to give his nod for a CBI inquiry or one monitored by the high court, Badal said that “if you have nothing to hide you should not be afraid of an independent probe into the bribery allegations”.
He said the very fact that AAP had called for a special session in the run up to the Assembly elections in Himachal and Gujarat indicated that it wanted to give the impression that while Congress legislators were saleable, its MLAs had rebuffed attempts to purchase their loyalty.
Telling the Chief Minister to discuss real issues in the forthcoming assembly session, Badal said issues like the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal crisis, the need to seek immediate transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab and the excise scam should be included in the agenda.
–IANS