Hours after asserting that Congress’ former Dhuri MlA Arvind Khanna has been “expelled from the party for six years, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Partap Singh Bajwa on Tuesday clarified that it was “due to some communication gap that he got the impression that Khanna had been expelled from the party for six years”.
Bajwa, while talking to the reporters on the sidelines of 10th death anniversary of Sant Ram Singla, father of Congress’ former MP from Sangrur Vijay Inder Singla, at Sangrur, had stated that Khanna has been expelled — only to take a U-turn in the evening.
He, in Sangur, had said that Khanna has been expelled from the party for six years for resigning from the Assembly “without taking State or Central party leadership into confidence”. Bajwa had also accused Khanna of being “hand-in-glove with Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal” and entering into a deal that he would be elevated to Rajya Sabha in 2016.
later, the PPCC chief said that he had “no hesitation in putting the record straight as no action had so far been taken against him”. “The prerogative to take any action against the former MlA Arvind Khanna vested in the party high command as he is a member of the All Indian Congress Committee (AICC),” said Bajwa.
The development is significant as Khanna had put in his papers almost three months before in January announcing to quit active politics, that necessitated Dhuri by-elections, scheduled to be held on April 11 Khanna, also considered as “blue-eyed” boy of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, was elected an MlA from Sangrur constituency in 2002 by winning the seat from a record margin of over 17,000 votes, and in 2012 from Dhuri assembly segment by about 12,500 votes. He is also running an NGO, Umeed, through which, he said that he would continue social work in Punjab.