Chandigarh: Former Punjab finance minister and Congress chief Manpreet Singh Badal joined the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) Wednesday, a step he claimed was made after “disappointing disillusionment” along with his former occasion.
“How will you function in a celebration which is at battle with itself?” Manpreet stated concerning the Congress at his becoming a member of ceremony in New Delhi which was attended by Union Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP nationwide common secretary from Punjab, Tarun Chugh.
Referring to Union Dwelling Minister Amit Shah, Manpreet stated it was a rarity to satisfy a “lion” in politics. Manpreet added that he may see India and Punjab progressing beneath the management of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his staff.
The five-time MLA joins a distinguished group of Punjab Congressmen, together with former chief minister Amarinder Singh and former state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, who’ve switched events previously one yr.
Earlier, Manpreet was lacking from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which entered Punjab on 10 January. Within the final yr’s Punjab election, he misplaced to AAP’s Jagroop Singh Gill by a whopping margin of over 60,000 votes.
Though it was extensively recognized that Manpreet doesn’t get together with Congress state chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and former state head Navjot Singh Sidhu, his becoming a member of the BJP has come as a shock to occasion members.
Congress common secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh highlighted how Manpreet had incessantly modified his political allegiance.
“A person who left Akali Dal to make his personal occasion after which joined the Congress, was made Finance Minister for five years, then misplaced by a document margin of over 60k and thereafter went into hibernation now joins BJP,” he tweeted.
In his strongly worded resignation letter, Manpreet hit out on the Congress management in Delhi for giving the reins of the occasion in Punjab to the fallacious individuals.
“I don’t see the purpose in elaborating extensively on all the actual proceedings that led to my final and irrevocable disaffection. Suffice it to say, that the way by which the Congress occasion has performed its affairs and brought choices, particularly almost about Punjab, has been disheartening to say the least,” he wrote in his letter addressed to Rahul Gandhi and posted on Twitter.
“The coterie of males entrusted with the authority to dictate Delhi’s writ to the Punjab unit of the Congress are removed from sound. As an alternative of striving to scale back inner disagreements in an already divided home, these males acted to additional improve factionism, and virtually as a matter of coverage strengthened the very worst components inside the occasion,” it learn.
Preliminary enthusiasm step by step gave technique to disappointing disillusionment, he added.
Additionally Learn: As Congress, Akali abstain, BJP pips AAP in Chandigarh mayor ballot by 1 vote — similar to final yr
Modified events through the years
A nephew of Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet had left the SAD in 2010 to kind his personal outfit, the Folks’s Occasion of Punjab (PPP), in 2011. The PPP contested the 2012 Punjab elections however his occasion managed solely somewhat over 5 per cent of the vote share.
It was Manpreet who launched Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann into electoral politics by his PPP. Mann later joined the Aam Aadmi Occasion (AAP) in 2014.
In 2016, Manpreet merged his PPP with the Congress and went on to contest within the meeting election subsequent yr. Though Manpreet’s dwelling seat was Gidderbaha from the place he had gained a number of occasions, he efficiently contested because the Bathinda candidate for the Congress occasion.
Warring, in the meantime, contested from Gidderbaha and gained. This shifting of seats grew to become a critical level of competition between the 2 leaders. The duo sparred by your entire length of the interval that then chief minister Amarinder Singh was in energy.
Manpreet, who was the finance minister within the Parkash Singh Badal ministry, was given the identical portfolio by Amarinder. He remained the finance minister even after Amarinder was eliminated because the chief minister in September 2021. An avid reader with a penchant for Urdu poetry, the senior Punjab chief holds the document of presenting the Punjab finances 9 occasions.
Manpreet is claimed to have performed an essential function in pushing Charanjit Singh Channi’s case to develop into the chief minister, upsetting Sidhu who was then within the operating for the chief ministerial place.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Additionally Learn: From Amarinder to Jakhar, why BJP has cherrypicked Punjab Congress turncoats for nationwide physique