Junking his bête noire, Partap Singh Bajwa’s objection to giving tickets to turncoats, Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday said that there was “nothing unusual” in the “possibility” of giving tickets to turncoats as it was a common practice in all parties, and even Congress has done it on earlier occasions.
Responding to the “internal opposition” to giving tickets to turncoats who join the Congress, Capt Amarinder made it clear that the prerogative of allocating tickets for the forthcoming Punjab Assembly elections was of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
At the same time, Capt Amarinder declared that the party would strictly follow “one family, one seat” norm while allotting tickets.
“One family, one seat rule would be stringently followed, without exception,” said Capt Amarinder while assuring that the no sitting MlA would be deprived of a ticket.
Paying no heed to the divisions within the party over the possible issuance of tickets to those who joined the Congress fold recently, Capt Amarinder pointed out that this had been done even earlier.
He cited the instance of Manpreet Badal, who was nominated by the Congress, for the 2014 lok Sabha election from Bathinda, and Simar Pratap Singh Barnala, grandson of Surjit Singh Barnala, who was the joint candidate for Congress and Sanjha Morcha for Dhuri by-election in 2015.
Capt Amarinder said that it was common for all parties to take in politicians from other parties.
“The fact that so many people are joining the Congress is a good sign for the party… it shows that the people of the State are with our party,” he said.