Amid ongoing infighting in the Punjab Congress, three suspended Aam Aadmi Party MLAs Sukhpal Khaira, Pirmal Singh and Jagdev Singh Kmalu joined the Congress on Thursday minutes before Captain Amarindar Singh leaving for Delhi to meet the party high command amid infighting in the state unit.
Welcoming three leaders, Singh said the Congress stood strengthened with the joining of the three leaders. Patiala member of Parliament and the chief minister’s wife Preneet Kaur was present during the simple joining ceremony in Chandigarh. She said the MLAs who have joined recently shall be a big asset to the party.
His announcement came minutes before his departure from the helipad as he tweeted from the Punjab Congress handle that Captain Amarinder Singh before leaving for Delhi welcomed three AAP MLA into the party fold after an approval by party chief Sonia Gandhi. He said that the induction of the three leaders has been approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress was already abuzz with rumours of the three suspended AAP leaders joining the party while Khaira had been denying the reports.
Singh had been scheduled to meet a three-member panel led by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and constituted by AICC Chief Sonia Gandhi to listen to the grievances of the party leaders from Punjab. A group of leaders have raised a banner of revolt against the Chief Minister, including party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu. The panel has been hearing their concerns one-on-one since Monday.
After quitting the AAP in January 2019, Khaira, a former leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly, founded the Punjab Ekta Party. He is also a former member of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. He was elected from Bholath on an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ticket in 2017. The leader had joined the party led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in December 2015 after leaving Congress.
Kmalu is an MLA from Maur who defeated Congress candidate Harminder Jassi, known for escaping a bomb blast just before elections. Pirmal Singh is an MLA from Bhadaur. Khaira had resigned from Vidhan Sabha also before withdrawing his resignation in October 2019.
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has been staving off rebellion within his party with his detractors, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Partap Singh Bajwa, Pargat Singh, Surjit Singh Dhiman and Shamsher Singh Dullo. The state leaders are hugely concerned over the government’s inability to take action against culprits in cases involving desecration of Guru Granth Sahib and police firing during peaceful protests in 2015. The incident also questions the inaccessibility, inadequate representation to Dalits and other backward classes and over-dependence on the bureaucracy.