Navjot Singh Sidhu aims to stop exodus of Congress councillors into AAP

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, April 4

After a spate of meetings and moves by Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu to increase the strength of the AAP in the Municipal Corporation, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu has initiated the process to mobilise the party leaders to counter the attempts.

Rintu has managed to convince a large number of Congress councillors to switch over to the AAP. However, there has not been any concrete move by senior Congress leaders to oppose the poaching of their councillors.

For this first time after debacle in the Assembly election, local Congress leaders, including former Punjab Pradesh Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, former Deputy CM OP Soni, former Cabinet minister Rajkumar Verka, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, former MLAs Inderbir Singh Bularia, Sunil Dutti, Jugal Kishore Sharma, District Congress Urban president Ashwini Pappu and state general secretary Joginder Pal Dhingra gathered at a club here on Sunday.

Expressing their concern over Congress councillors leaving the party, they were unanimous in their opinion of turning the tables against Mayor Rintu. They stressed on meeting colleagues, strengthening and boosting the morale of the party councillors. They said that the next strategy would be decided after the instructions from the High Court which they filed in the matter.

Earlier, the number of AAP councillors in MC General House rose to 27 on April 1. Keeping in view the five AAP MLAs being members of General House, the AAP has a total of 33 members in the 89 member house.