Upkar Sandhu rejoins Congress

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 21

City-based politician Upkar Singh Sandhu re-joined the Congress in presence of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Jail Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, MLA Inderbir Singh Bolaria and others at the CM’s residence in Chandigarh on Sunday.

In the 2017 Lok Sabha byelections, Sandhu was an AAP candidate who amassed about 1.50 lakh votes. His AAP predecessor, late Daljit Singh, had secured 80,000 votes in the 2014 general elections.

Bolaria, who was instrumental in making Sandhu rejoin the party, said SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia had been trying to win him back through a Shiromani committee member, who is a relative of Sandhu.

Belonging to a Taksali family and former district president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Sandhu has been in and out of different parties after parting ways with the SAD in October 2015.

He had resigned as PEDA chairman and the SAD following the sacrilege incidents. However, within two weeks he was back to the SAD fold as, according to him, party president Sukhbir Singh Badal had convinced him that enough corrective measures were taken.

A year later (in October 2016), he again left the SAD and joined the Congress. After a few weeks, he switched over to the AAP which rewarded him with a party ticket for the Amritsar Lok Sabha bypoll, barely 48 hours after joining it.

In between, he had also joined the BJP for an extremely short period.

His image got sullied after land-grabbing allegations were levelled against him, which he termed a false propaganda and challenged anyone to prove those.