Prof Singh was named by AAP as its candidate from Faridkot in its first list that was released nearly six months back. A retired Professor of English, he had won last time by a margin of 1.72 lakh votes against SAD’s Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan in his maiden attempt. (PTI Photo)Faridkot MP and AAP leader Prof Sadhu Singh, who is fighting for another term from the same seat, says that he will run a simple campaign like an aam aadmi.
Finalising content of a election pamphlet in his living room, he points out the work done by him in the last five years.
“I distributed each and every penny to villages and urban areas. I focused on honesty which is a rarity in politics, the last installment of Rs 2.25 crore of my MPLAD fund did not come, rest all has been distributed — out of which 90% of the grants have been given to rural areas which is a record in Faridkot. I even helped many cancer patients to get fund released from PM’s Relief Fund which was to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore. Gave funds for sewer disposal, water tanks, parks, sports sector and many other projects.”
Prof Singh was named by AAP as its candidate from Faridkot in its first list that was released nearly six months back. A retired Professor of English, he had won last time by a margin of 1.72 lakh votes against SAD’s Paramjeet Kaur Gulshan in his maiden attempt.
“There was a strong wave in the area for AAP last time. Now, I will be trying for yet another term and will focus on my simple campaign as ‘aam aadmi’ as I did last time. I am not the one who earns out of politics like many other parties,” he said.
About challenge posed by Punjabi Ekta Party (PEP) in particular and Punjab Democratic Alliance (PDA) in general, he said: “If you go and listen to the speeches of PDA candidate Master Baldev Singh, he is seen targeting AAP rather than the state government which is ruled by Congress and Centre’s NDA. Their target is just to defeat AAP, rather than to talk about any development project or to think about interests of masses in general. So voters need to understand their motive and also the honesty with which I had been serving them for the past 5 years.”
He added,” I do visit villages and even urban areas, but as of now have kept the campaign low profile as elections in Punjab are in the last phase.”
His rival, Master Baldev Singh, however, says that over 80 per cent workers of AAP are with him and so the sitting MP is getting no response due to which his campaign is yet to take off. Claiming that “Prof Sadhu’s security deposit will be forfeited”, Baldev Singh has been accusing him of remaining invisible for the entire term.
“I fell ill for sometime after polls, but later I was among masses. I worked on merit for people, rather than accepting or giving any favours. Perhaps this is the reason, a few are speaking otherwise,” retorted Prof Singh.
About crisis in AAP, he said: “Popularity graph of the party has come down, but we are the only party which can bring positive change in the political system. We are a revolutionary party while PEP is a reactionary party.”
