MLA Angad Singh’s name missing in Congress list

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 15

Nearly two months after his wife Aditi Singh left the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party in Uttar Pradesh, the name of Nawanshahr sitting MLA Angad Singh (31) on Saturday went missing in the first list of 86 party candidates for Punjab polls released on Saturday.

I do not think that marital issues and different ideologies of husband and wife were taken into account by the party seniors in the ticket distribution. I am confident of making it in the subsequent lists of the party. Neither me nor my mom had their names in the first list of the party even in 2012 and 2017. My grandfather Dilbagh Singh got the Congress ticket from Banga in 1962 and subsequently from Nawanshahr in 1967. He won for a record six times. My uncle remained MLA in 1997. My father Parkash Singh also remained MLA in 2002. With that kind of a record, I do not have much to worry about. Angad Singh, Nawanshahr sitting MLA

A firebrand politician who remained earlier closely associated with the top Congress brass, Aditi is sitting MLA from Rae Bareli Sadar and has been continuously engaged in bashing Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi there since her induction in the BJP. The party leaders feel that owing to his wife’s changed political stance, the party had not cleared his ticket yet.

Quite confident of making it again this time, Angad Singh said, “I do not think that marital issues and different ideologies of husband and wife are taken into account by the party seniors in the ticket distribution. I am confident of making it in the subsequent lists of the party. Neither me nor my mom had their names in the first list of the party even in 2012 and 2017.”

Angad’s mother Guriqbal Kaur Babli was an MLA in 2012. The family has been given the party ticket for a record 13 times in the last 60 years. “My grandfather Dilbagh Singh got the Congress ticket from Banga in 1962 and subsequently from Nawanshahr in 1967. He won for a record six times. My uncle remained MLA in 1997. My father Parkash Singh also remained MLA in 2002. With that kind of a record, I do not have much to worry about”, he said.

Angad’s wife is the daughter of veteran UP leader Akhilesh Singh and had already been showing signs of rebellion against the party for the past two years. She had even taken a stand against the Congress in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident of killing of four farmers. Aditi too has been facing questions from media in UP over her husband’s political stance in Punjab but she is telling everyone not to discuss her family matters. “I have my own ideology and my husband can have his independent inclination and thoughts. Let us not mix political and domestic affairs.” Even her husband Angad maintains: “I cannot force my wife to have political opinion as mine. She has the right to maintain her own stand.”

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