Key Takeaways
- The Aam Aadmi Party initiated the Bijli Andolan to demand free, 24‑hour electricity in Haryana.
- Leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann highlighted that Punjab and Delhi already have round‑the‑clock power, contrasting with Haryana’s outages.
- The campaign targets the BJP‑led Khattar government, urging it to match AAP’s electricity policies in other states.
On Sunday, July 9, the Aam Aadmi Party National Convenor and Delhi Chief Minister, alongside Punjab’s Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, launched the ‘Aam Aadmi Party Bijli Andolan’ from Panchkula to protest the power outage in Haryana, ruled by Manohar Lal Khattar (BJP).
According to AAP’s Haryana unit President Sushil Gupta, the campaign aims to compel Khattar to provide free, round‑the‑clock electricity in Haryana, mirroring the party’s actions in Punjab and Delhi.
Talking to the media, Gupta said that the people of Haryana were facing massive power outages and alleged that the Khattar-led government was doing nothing to improve the situation. Comparing the situation with Delhi and Punjab, he further claimed that 87 per cent of the domestic consumers in Punjab got free electricity, while Haryana’s electricity consumption increased to 2.53 crore units per day in the last nine years.
Speaking at the event, Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal said, ‘Name a single Congress or BJP-led state where there is round-the-clock supply of electricity. Please ask this; but there is none. Name one state where 24-hour supply of power was provided by the Congress in the last 75 years, or by the BJP. They did not do this. So, if you vote them into power again, there will be power cuts only, and the price of power will get so high that all of your income will go into paying the bills but even that won’t suffice.’
‘There is only one way, we are not asking for votes for ourselves, we are talking about you, and your family. Today, we cannot survive without electricity, so, if you want 24-hour supply of power, and free electricity, then there is only one option- Aam Aadmi Party, Jhaadu (broom).’, added Kejriwal.
He further expressed, ‘So, in the coming times, in the next one or two months, we will carry this campaign out with full vigour. And let me tell you this, the first Delhi election was fought by us solely on the issue of electricity, and fighting on this issue, within 12 months, our government was formed in Delhi. Next, the Punjab election was also fought on this issue. Make this issue reach every household, and an AAP government will be formed in Haryana as well.’
The Delhi CM also stated that if the others would have worked, why they would (the AAP) have entered politics, and he would have been continuing with his income-tax job, and Bhagwant Mann would do his shows, and Manish Sisodia was into journalism. Everyone was doing their own job. But they (the Opposition), worsened the condition of the country, that was when this came into our minds. Anna Ji had said that politics is ‘mud’, and I used to say that now we will have to get into this mud with a broom, or else things won’t work out.
‘We will use this jhaadu (broom) for cleaning; we cleaned Delhi, we cleaned Punjab, now it is Haryana’s turn, we will clean up Haryana as well’, Kejriwal expressed.
