PPP joins hands with CPI, CPM, Shiromani Akali Dal to form third front

With about four months to go for the Punjab Assembly elections, Manpreet Badal-led People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) has joined hands with the CPI, the CPM and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) to form a third front which would take on both, the Congress and the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance.

The SAD (L) became active last month after Surjit Singh Barnala took up its reigns.

Manpreet, former finance minister and nephew of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, was expelled from the Akali Dal last year, following his differences with the chief minister over economic reforms to be brought about in the state.

The front will launch a yatra on November 6 from Dhudike, the birthplace of Lala Lajpat Rai to highlight the “social, economic and moral crisis” in the state, Manpreet said. 

The four parties have formed a 20-member co-ordination committee to chalk out the morcha’s future course. Barnala has been made patron of the alliance and Badal chairman. One person each from the four parties — SS Johl, Nirmal Singh Dhariwal, Charan Singh Virdi, Baldev Singh Mann and Gagandeep Singh Barnala — will be vice-chairman.