Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Sandip Pathak has said if his party is elected to power in Chhattisgarh in the Assembly polls due this year-end, farmers will get higher rates for paddy than what they are receiving under the incumbent Congress government.
Speaking at the oath-taking ceremony of the newly-appointed office bearers of the AAP's Chhattisgarh unit here on Tuesday, Pathak hit out at the Congress and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying despite getting opportunities to rule the state, the two leading parties did nothing except "cheating" its people.
He said Delhi Chief Minister and AAP's national convener Arvind Kejriwal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will address a rally in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur district on July 2. More than 4,300 newly-appointed office-bearers of the party were sworn in during the function held at a luxurious hotel on the outskirts of state capital Raipur.
If the AAP is elected to power in the state, paddy procurement from farmers will be done at higher rates than what is being paid to cultivators under the present government, said Pathak, who hails from Chhattisgarh.
After the formation of Chhattisgarh in November 2000, the BJP and the Congress got multiple opportunities to rule, but both the parties "cheated" the people of the state, he claimed. When Kejriwal can vastly improve the functioning of government schools in Delhi after getting one chance, why can't the BJP and the Congress do the same in Chhattisgarh, he asked and went on to highlight the achievements of the AAP government in the National Capital Territory.
The AAP tried its luck for the first time in Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh in 2018 and fielded candidates in 85 out of the total 90 seats, but failed to open its account.
