Mumbai: Congress leader Ravi Raja resigns from Congress, set to join BJP
Raja has been the leader of Opposition in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and has been party member for over 44 years.
With the Congress announcing support for the Aam Aadmi Party’s fight against the Ordinance brought by the Centre on the control of services in the national Capital, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have dubbed the AAP-Congress collusion as “an unholy wedlock” in which both parties have treated Punjab as a bargaining chip to seal an immoral deal.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia said the two parties struck a quid pro quo in which Punjab has been sacrificed at the altar of the games which they play at the national stage.
“In a quid pro quo, the Congress has agreed not to contest against AAP in Punjab and Delhi while AAP will not oppose Congress anywhere in the rest of the country,” he added.
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Majithia said the Congress and the AAP had enacted the drama of opposing each other in the Punjab Assembly poll merely in their shared hatred of the SAD. “The official Opposition in Punjab is dead. It is no longer Opposition; it is all official now. The Congress is now officially a faction of the ruling party,” he added.
BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said that it is now official that the AAP and the Congress are “one team.” He said AAP-Congress are now together in the business of befooling people. “Congress has now become the spare wheel of AAP and it is clear that both these parties are playing a fixed match”, he said on Sunday.
Shergill said the Congress high command’s decision has caused ridicule to the Punjab Congress. He said the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa of Congress held multiple press conferences demanding that the Congress must not support the AAP on the issue of the Centre’s ordinance.
“However, the Congress High command has clearly disrespected their demand, which makes it amply clear that nobody bothers about the Punjab unit in AICC”, he said adding the Congress party has now lost all standing to question AAP’s anti-Punjab policies.
Shergill said that this move of Congress supporting AAP shows the political frustration, desperation and double standards of the Congress party.
“On one hand, AAP is arresting Congress leaders in Punjab on grounds of corruption in a Daily Basis and Arvind Kejriwal (AAP chief) has openly called Congress a corrupt brigade. While on the other hand, Congress has celebrated the arrest of AAP leaders in Delhi liquor scam. Despite all this, they have joined hands. This decision makes it clear that the Congress is not with the people of Punjab and are standing instead with AAP in their lust for power,” he said, while adding that BJP is the only alternative for Punjab.
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