Chandigarh: Attacking the Bhagwant Mann-led govt ahead of the Punjab assembly elections, Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday sought a white paper detailing the Aam Aadmi Party dispensation’s employment achievements over the last five years.Addressing a gathering of BJP workers in Amritsar, where several functionaries from rival parties joined the saffron outfit, Saini accused both the AAP and the Congress of misleading the electorate with grand promises of job creation and leaving the youth stranded.“The AAP promised 20 lakh jobs to the youth of Punjab. They must issue a white paper and disclose how many jobs were actually delivered in five years,” Saini stated, highlighting recent irregularities in Punjab’s Excise Inspector recruitment as evidence of systemic governance failure.Drawing a sharp contrast with Haryana’s economic indicators, Saini noted that Haryana’s real economic growth rate stood at 9.5% for 2025-26, outstripping Punjab’s 6.1% by 3.4 percentage points.He added that Haryana’s economy for 2026-27 was projected at Rs 15.18 lakh crore compared to Punjab’s Rs 9.81 lakh crore, a staggering difference of Rs 5.38 lakh crore.“Punjab was once among the richest states. Haryana, formed nearly two decades after Punjab, has zoomed ahead because of visionary leadership, transparent recruitment, and zero tolerance for corrupt practices like ‘Parchi and Kharchi’,” Saini remarked, pointing out that Haryana delivered 45,000 merit-based govt jobs over the last 18 months.Saini also flagged the escalating crisis of drug addiction in Punjab, sharply criticising successive Congress and AAP administrations for failing to stem the tide. “The real metric of anti-drug action is not political rhetoric, but how many lives are saved and how availability drops. Once the BJP forms govt in Punjab, drug peddlers will have no place to hide,” he said.Outlining the BJP’s governance blueprint under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Saini emphasised that the populace in Punjab was seeking a shift toward industrial revitalisation, reliable minimum support price (MSP) systems for farmers, and robust youth rehabilitation through sports infrastructure.Senior BJP functionaries, including former MP Shwait Malik and Amritsar district president Salil Kapoor, were present as Saini exhorted party cadres to take the development pitch directly to every household.
