‘How Can Party Back BJP’s B-team AAP’s Congress-mukt Bharat Plan?’ What Punjab Leaders Told Kharge, Rahul

Reiterating their fierce opposition to supporting Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over the Delhi ordinance issue, Punjab Congress leaders on Monday met party President Mallikarjun Kharge urging him to avoid lending support to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal as it would be detrimental to the party’s interest in several states including Punjab.

Importantly, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was also present in the meeting.

With some state unit leaders expressing their reservations over the support to AAP over the issue, Kharge had convened separate meetings of leaders from the Punjab and Delhi units. When the Punjab leaders met the party president, they unequivocally told him that any signs of a “tie-up” with AAP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls would be politically “devastating” for the party.

The local leaders pointed out that by meeting the Congress leadership, Arvind Kejriwal would be able to send a message that he was the force behind a joint opposition against the BJP which does not augur well for the grand old party in several states including Punjab.

They also suggested Rahul Gandhi or the party president should not meet Kejriwal.

Punjab leaders led by state unit chief Amarinder Raja Warring, leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, former state chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, former ministers Sukhjinder Randhawa, Bharat Ashu Bhushan, and Tript Bajwa Rana KP Singh, told Kharge that the Punjab unit was the worst affected as the AAP government in the state had unleashed political vendetta against its leaders.

Citing the vigilance cases against Bharat Bhushan Ashu, besides inquiries against former CM Charanjit Singh Channi and other former MLAs, the state unit chief is learnt to have pointed out that any such truck with AAP would demoralise the party cadre.

After the meeting, Navjot Singh Sidhu told media persons that there cannot be an alliance where there are ideological differences.

“Wherever he (Kejriwal) goes, he has affected only the Congress. The party high command need to decide if they want to be a part of Kejriwal’s Congress-mukt Bharat, a slogan of the BJP. The call for united opposition is one thing but the party high command should decide whether they want to stand by a man who is almost like the B-team of BJP, someone whose party is accused in the excise scam,” commented a leader.