The political clash between the Aam Aadmi Party government in Punjab and the BJP has intensified after BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh sent a legal notice to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over his remarks linking the BJP to recent low-intensity blasts in the state.
In the defamation notice, sent through his lawyer Sanket Gupta, Chugh demanded that Mann withdraw his statement and issue a public apology within seven days. Chugh accused the chief minister of making baseless allegations to divert attention from the state government’s failures. He said Punjab faces serious challenges such as drugs, bomb blasts, gangster networks and economic stress, but the Mann government tries to blame the BJP instead of addressing these issues.
The controversy began on Wednesday when Mann, speaking to reporters during his ‘Shukrana Yatra’ in Rupnagar after the implementation of a stricter sacrilege law, reacted to recent blasts in Amritsar and Jalandhar. Mann claimed the incidents were part of the BJP’s preparation for the next Punjab elections. He said attempts were earlier made to create unrest in the name of sacrilege, but after strict punishment was introduced, such acts had stopped, leading to low-intensity blasts instead. Mann added that investigations were ongoing and said strategies used in other states would not work in Punjab.
Mann also said that Punjab, being the land of Gurus and saints, would not accept politics based on hatred or communal tension.
Following these comments, Union Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu challenged the chief minister to register a case against the BJP if he had any proof to support his claims.
