Chandigarh, June 5: The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party, claiming the organization operates politics like a marketplace where ideology, loyalty, and public mandates are routinely traded to secure power. Senior AAP leader and Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema stated that the saffron party uses opposition leaders as temporary assets to advance its local political agenda before abandoning them.
Cheema pointed to recent political shifts involving prominent figures as evidence of an opportunistic strategy designed to manufacture an illusion of political expansion within the state. According to the cabinet minister, the approach relies entirely on short-term gains rather than genuine regional development.
“BJP treats turncoat politicians as disposable commodities to satisfy its hunger for power. Recent political shifts reveal the BJP’s complete disregard for the Punjab leaders it inherits, using them strictly for short-term gains before tossing them aside,” Cheema declared during a press briefing in Chandigarh.
The finance minister claimed that leaders who defected to the BJP have compromised the broader interests of the state and voluntarily entered a structural trap. He noted that the strategy is specifically engineered to shield the party from public dissatisfaction by placing imported faces at the forefront.
“BJP has reduced politics to a marketplace of opportunism, and leaders like Ravneet Singh Bittu and Sunil Jakhar are the perfect and most recent examples of BJP’s strategy of ‘use and throw’ political opportunists of opposition parties,” Cheema asserted. “They systematically target opposition leaders, lure them to switch sides to create a false narrative of growth in Punjab, and once their immediate utility is over, they ruthlessly marginalize them.”
The AAP leader maintained that local voters remain highly conscious of these maneuvers and understand the underlying motives. He stated that the electorate is fully aware of the party’s historical stance regarding regional issues, particularly those affecting the agricultural sector and younger demographics.
“The brave and politically conscious electorate of Punjab will never forgive those who betray the state’s interests, especially its farmers and youth, just to please their new masters in BJP,” Cheema said.
Reaffirming the ruling party’s stance, Cheema stated that while the opposition relies heavily on political engineering, the AAP administration led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann remains dedicated to safeguarding the dignity and overall prosperity of the state.
