Manpreet set to join Congress

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 28

If leaders in the state Congress are to be believed, Manpreet Badal, the estranged nephew of CM Parkash Singh Badal, is set to formally join the Congress. Manpreet, who was expelled from the SAD in 2010, had floated People’s Party of Punjab.

The modalities of the merger of the PPP and the Congress have almost been finalised. While it was being said that Manpreet Badal could either join the AAP or the Congress, his party workers recently persuaded him to join the latter after the recent splits in the national and the state AAP units.

While Manpreet could not be contacted, the PPP office-bearers confirmed that the merger of the PPP with the Congress was almost finalised, but the announcement could take some time.

“Manpreet has used his links of Doon School to speak to AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi. We know that we cannot fight the 2017 Assembly polls alone. We have to merge with a party. We were earlier trying to hold discussions with AAP since our ideologies are similar. But of late, we have found their attitude unprofessional,” said a PPP leader.

Even the PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa is said to have used his influence to bring Manpreet into party fold and get an edge over his bête noire and former CM Capt Amarinder Singh.

The one-seat pact between the Congress and the PPP during Lok Sabha polls had given sleepless nights to the Badal family who had to camp in Bathinda to save the prestige of CM’s daughter-in-law Harsimrat Badal. Harsimrat could manage a lead of just around 19,000 votes against Manpreet.