One of the senior most Congress leaders of Punjab and State’s former Education Minister Avtar Singh Brar on Wednesday joined Akali Dal after serving the Congress for more than four decades.
While joining the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Brar maintained that he was feeling suffocated in the party. “I felt I was not getting due respect and honour after spending 42 years in a party. I felt suffocated and insulted in the Congress,” he said. A prominent leader from Faridkot, and having a stronghold in the Malwa region of the state, 75-year old Brar joined the SAD along with his supporters in the presence of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, his Deputy and SAD chief Sukhbir Badal and other Akali leaders.
Welcoming him into the party-fold, the senior Badal said it was “a historic day” for the SAD as Brar enjoys a “high stature and has a clean image”. “His induction into the SAD will create a tidal wave against the Congress in Malwa,” he said.
Sukhbir described Brar as “pure Congressman”, maintaining that his induction in the party would send a strong message to the people regarding state of affairs in the Congress. “All the honest and dedicated leaders in the Congress party are feeling uncomfortable in the corrupt, anti-people and anti nation Congress party…His experience would give great strength to the party,” he added.
Stating that he was starting a new chapter of his life by joining SAD, Brar said that he had joined the SAD unconditionally” to be part of the SAD family.He attacked the Congress saying that there was rampant corruption in the country during the UPA rule. Brar, who served as Education Minister in 1992, was defeated by SAD’s Deep Malhotra in Faridkot in 2012 state assembly polls.
He has also been an AICC member, PPCC senior vice president on two occasions and chief whip of the party during Beant Singh’s tenure as Chief Minister in early ‘90s.