CHANDIGARH: A day after former Congress spokesperson Sukhpal Singh Khaira
joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder
Singh on Saturday welcomed a new group of leaders to the party.
He, however, refused to link the leaders’ induction in the Congress with
Khaira leaving the party by saying that the Congress was like an ocean and one
person leaving it did not matter much. “Khaira’s father was my associate and he
(Sukhpal) is like my son. Maybe he sees a better future in AAP,” said
Amarinder, who was accompanied by former MPs Manish Tewari and Jagmeet Brar,
Abohar MLA Sunil Jakhar and senior vice-president Lal Singh.
Apart from AAP members from MP Bhagwant Mann’s constituency, Sangrur,
leaders of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), including
a former Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) member, also joined the
Congress in Amarinder’s presence here on Saturday.
Asked about Khaira’s outburst against him, Amarinder said, “When someone
quits a party, he is not expected to say good things. Further, AAP leaders
joining Congress should not be seen as a reply to Khaira’s exit. If one person
has left, so many others have joined Congress today.”
Reacting to Khaira’s charge that his contributions in Congress were not
acknowledged, Amarinder and Tewari recounted going to his house in 1998 as
Punjab Congress and All India Youth Congress presidents, respectively, to offer
him the post of state Youth Congress president. “How many times is a politician
made such an offer?” asked Tewari.
Replaying to another question, Amarinder rubbished Khaira’s charge that he
was ‘hand in glove’ with the Badals. “If that was true, why should I be having
to go to court hearings every week? I have zero contact with him. In fact, I never
got along with him even 25 years ago. Sukhbir was studying abroad at that
time,” he said. He claimed that he had falsely been implicated by the Badals in
two cases and had been fighting in court for nine years.
Amarinder claimed that though the
2017 Punjab assembly elections may see a triangular contest, Congress was on a
firm footing and the SAD had lost face after Bargari firing. For AAP, he said
it did not have any organizational structure. “Arvind Kejriwal government has
done badly in Delhi; I will be acquiring getting data on their performance
shortly to prove this,” he said.
Lashing out at the ruling alliance,
the Amritsar MP said with every passing day it was getting from bad to worse in
Punjab.
On AAP’s claims of cashing in on
what the party claims its popularity among young voters, Amarinder said
Congress was the only party in Punjab which can provide an efficient
governance. “Besides, I regularly interact with people from Punjab on my
Facebook page; most of them are youth who support the party for its past
performances,” he said.
Those who joined Congress on
Saturday included grass-root workers and circle in-charges of AAP from Sangrur,
but it was Jathedar Inder Mohan Singh, ex-SGPC member from Sunam, who was the
most prominent face to cross over to the party. Fieldworkers of BSP (Talwandi
Sabo) and a group of SAD and independent leaders, including a SAD councillor
from Moga, also joined the Congress.
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