In a big jolt to the Congress in Punjab a day after party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra concluded in the state, former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) minutes after resigning from the Congress on Wednesday.
After joining the BJP that already has a number of former Congress leaders, including Captain Amarinder Singh and Sunil Jakhar, Badal – who didn’t join the Yatra in Punjab – praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
“Under Prime Minister Modi’s leadership, India has made its presence felt globally through our diplomacy… The future belongs to India under Modi and as a politician from Punjab, I cannot sit idle. We have to think what Punjab can gain from this golden era of our country,” he said.
Attributing his joining the BJP to his meeting with Shah, Badal, “I have been in politics for 30 years. A few days ago, I met a tiger who was the home minister of India, he told me that Punjab has been attacked 400 times. His statement that ‘we will do everything for Punjab’ touched me and I am always concerned for Punjab and the future of Punjab.”
While differences with Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring are said to be the main reason behind his resignation, Badal accused the party’s state unit of aiding and abetting ‘factionalism’.
In his resignation letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Badal said he had hopes for both the people of Punjab and its interests after merging the PPP with the party, but “initial enthusiasm gradually gave way to disappointing disillusionment”.
He said the manner in which the Congress party has conducted its affairs and taken decisions, specifically with regards to Punjab, has been disheartening.
“The coterie of men entrusted with the authority to dictate Delhi’s writ to the Punjab unit of the Congress are far from sound. Instead of striving to reduce internal disagreement in an already divided house, these men acted to further increase factionalism, and almost as a matter of policy strengthened the very worst elements within the party,” he said in the resignation letter.
The BJP is the fourth party Manpreet has joined since starting his political career in 1995 by winning the Gidderbaha by-election.
Nephew of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch and former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet had quit the SAD in 2011 ahead of Punjab Assembly polls to form his own outfit, People’s Party of Punjab (PPP). He merged PPP with the Congress in 2016 and was the finance minister in the previous Congress government.
Describing Badal’s exit from the party as ‘good riddance’, Punjab Congress chief Warring said he is “congenitally power hungry”. Two days before Punjab Assembly polls, Warring had given a call to defeat the “Bathinde wala Badal”, in an obvious reference to his fellow Congressman and then cabinet colleague Manpreet Singh Badal who was contesting from Bathinda Urban. Badal lost the poll to Aam Aadmi Party’s Jagroop Singh Gill.