Farmers Movement Archive

A day before meeting Kharge panel, Capt brings Sukhpal Khaira, 2 other rebel AAP MLAs into Cong fold

The ruling Congress in Punjab got a shot in the arm when three rebel Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, including former leader of opposition (LOP) Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Pirmal Singh Khalsa, joined the party on Thursday ahead of next year’s assembly polls in the state. The MLAs were welcomed into the party fold by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh minutes before he left for Delhi in a helicopter for a one-on-one meeting with three-member committee constituted by the Congress to resolve infighting in the Punjab unit. Amarinder’s wife, Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, was also present at the helipad where the three legislators met the chief minister and posed for photos which were posted on social media by the state Congress from its official handle promptly. “Chief Minister @Capt Amarinder Singh before leaving for Delhi today welcomed Sukhpal Singh Khaira, MLA and former leader of opposition and his two AAP MLA colleagues named Jagdev Singh Kamalu, MLA Maur, and Pirmal Singh Dhaula, MLA Bhadaur, into the party fold (sic),” the Punjab Congress tweeted. The three MLAs resigned from the membership of the state assembly. “Their resignations have been received in the speaker’s office,” an official of the state assembly said. The trio’s entry into the Congress, in a well-choreographed move timed with his meeting with the central team, is being seen as a boost for the chief minister. It could not have come at a more opportune moment for Amarinder, who, though, the tallest of the party in Punjab, is being openly targeted by a section of the Congress, particularly former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and Rajya Sabha member Partap Singh Bajwa, who are trying to paint a dismal picture of the party’s poll prospects. The AAP rebels’ entry has provided an opportunity to him to send out a message to the party leadership that he retains his appeal and can get leaders from rival parties. After the meeting, Amarinder said their induction has been approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. After joining the Congress, Khaira thanked Sonia and former party president Rahul Gandhi, besides heaping praise on Amarinder for his stand on the three farm laws. “Justice will definitely be delivered in the 2015 sacrilege and subsequent police firing incidents,” he said. He also termed his decision of joining the AAP a “political blunder”. However, not everyone in the Congress seems pleased with Khaira’s return to the party fold due to the ED raids at his premises three months ago and his sharp personal attacks against some party leaders, including the chief minister, earlier. While it is homecoming for Khaira, a two-time legislator from Bholath who first got elected to the state assembly as a candidate of the Congress in 2007, Kamalu and Khalsa are first timers. After quitting the Congress, Khaira had joined the AAP in 2015. He won the Bholath seat in 2017 and was later appointed LOP in the state assembly. However, he fell out with the party leadership after Arvind Kejriwal tendered an apology to Akali leader Bikram Majithia in a defamation case. When the party removed him as the leader of opposition, he, along with a few other AAP MLAs, rebelled and floated his separate Punjab Ekta Party (PEP). Khaira later contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Bathinda seat but lost. Amarinder in DelhiAmarinder, who has already reached Delhi, will meet the three-member committee comprising leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat and former MP Jai Prakash Agarwal at 11 am on Friday. On reaching the Capital, the CM went into a huddle with cabinet ministers Vijay Inder Singla and Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, MPs Ravneet Singh Bittu, Manish Tewari and Gurjeet Singh Aujla and his advisers at Kapurthala House.

Hindustan Times

04-06-2021

Chandigarh