In the run-up to the Punjab Assembly elections there have been a spate of political somersaults by senior leaders changing contours of the campaign trail.
In the run-up to the Punjab Assembly elections there have been a spate of political somersaults by senior leaders changing contours of the campaign trail.
After two senior leaders of the Punjab People’s party joined the Congress, former chief minister Amarinder Singh’s brother Malvinder Singh sprung a surprise on Sunday when he quit the Congress and joined the Akali Dal.
Malvinder called it quits after he was denied the Congress ticket from Samana Assembly constituency which has instead been given to Amarinder’s son Raninder Singh. Malvinder squarely blamed Amarinder’s wife Praneet Kaur, union minister of state for External Affairs, for queering his pitch in favour of her son.
Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal hailed it as a “big blow to the Congress” which, he said, would turn tables against the Congress in the Patiala region.
Earlier, the Punjab People’s Party headed by former finance minister Manpreet Badal had suffered a major set back last week as two of his closest lieutenants, Jagbir Brar, MLA, and Kushaldeep Singh, former MLA, quit the party and joined the Congress.
Both, Jagbir and Kushaldeep, have been the key architects of the new party which had emerged as a potent third front to fight the Congress and the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance.
Jagbir has fielded as the Congress candidate in Jalandhar spreading resentment among the old Congress loyalists.
Close on the heels former minister Chiranji Lal Garg had quit the Akali Dal to which he had been associated for the last two decades and had joined the Congress lending a new dimension to political equation in the Bathinda district.
Akali Dal MLA Didar Singh Bhatti also quit his parent party last week to join hands with the PPP.
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