Punjab Polls 2017: To teach ‘Dusht’ rivals a lesson, candidates get personal, animated

As the saying goes, to succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone. Rival candidates in the Punjab Assembly polls made all sorts of annotations that will tickle your bone. From "Dusht" (wicked), "kuttanga" (I'll thrash), "lootere" (robbers) to "topiwalas" (a reference to AAP workers), this is what the top politicians, across party lines, are hurling at each other.

Here are some samples.

1. On being asked by the media about his alleged fondness for drinking, AAP candidate Bhagwant Mann denied the charges, saying 'Do a blood test'. 
   "Do my blood test. In my blood you will find patriotism...God knows what one will find in the others," he quipped, after was seen struggling to get up in newspaper photographs. 
   Mann, who is contesting the polls against Sukhbir Badal from Jalalabad, is one of AAP's two parliamentarians in Punjab. His party is trying to replicate its electoral success in Delhi in Punjab.
2. Congress leader Amarinder Singh, who is contesting against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal from the Lambi seat, vowed to give a befitting answer to "dusht" Badal a "massive thrashing in Lambi".
   "I will thrash the old man in Lambi, asserts Amarinder.
   Other words reportedly used by Amarinder during his speech are "lootere" for the Badal family and "jhootha" (liar), "topiwala" and "meesana" for AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
3. Cricketer-turned-politician and TV personality Navjot Singh Sidhu, who joined the Congress just before the upcoming polls, too has come out all guns blazing against the ruling family for "ruining Punjab".
   He had once described the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a "pappu (good for nothing) PM" and "anarth shastri" (an agent of destruction) during the 2012 assembly polls.
4. Former Army chief Gen JJ Singh, who is pitted against Amarinder Singh for the Patiala-Urban seat, reportedly asked the ruling Akali Dal leaders that they should "hit below the belt".
5. AAP leader Bhagwant Mann has warned people against falling into the trap of Akali Dal, saying "Sukhbir Badal is here just to rise to next level of cheating and bluffing", referring to his offer to help Punjabis buy land in other countries.
   "Abraham Lincoln might have had people like Sukhbir Badal in his mind while penning the quote 'You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time'," Mann said.
6. Attacking the Congress, Union minister and Sukhbir's wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal said, "Punjab is not a laughter show stage where he (Sidhu) can make tall and false claims."
   "Newly-born Congress leader Navjot Sidhu is using dirty dialogue and cheap language against the political opponents. He himself is good for nothing," Harsimrat pointed out.
7. Sukhbir Badal described Sidhu as a "paid employee" of the Congress and the ruling Akalis and the BJP accused him of "changing his mother" after he switched sides to Congress.
8. Amarinder too has changed his tirade against Sidhu, from describing his Awaaz-e-Punjab front a "tonga party" just about a week ago to now calling him as his "son".
9. On the other hand, AAP state convener Gurpreet Singh Waraich said, "It would be great service to society if Badals can give some tips how to become rich like Harsimrat Badal.