The Congress party is banking upon spent forces to see it through in the parliamentary polls in Punjab. The party is taking pride in the fact that some political figureheads, including Bir Devinder Singh, Surjit Singh Barnala Manpreet Badal, and Malwinder Singh, are coming back under its umbrella.
If they have been out of power since long, it really does not matter to the Congress. For, the party, it seems, is indulging in game of numbers. The more, the better. The party is boasting of each and every induction in the party, notwithstanding their present position in the politics, and importance.
Taking as a big move ahead the 2014 general elections, the Congress party “formally” welcomed the former Congressman and former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Bir Devinder Singh back in the party fold with much pomp and show.
Before him, the Congress party, in an apparent move to save itself from sinking in the rough electoral seas, has cling to the debris of two political parties that itself was struggling to remain afloat in the State politics — the People’s Party of Punjab and the Shiromani Akali Dal (longowal).
While the joining of PPP chief Manpreet Badal has send alarm bells ringing for the Badals in Bathinda, the SAD (l) led by Barnala family, including former Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala, was of little importance to the Congress party.
Notably, PPP and SAD(l) has been the part of Sanjha Morcha which, though bagged 5.5 per cent of votes, had failed to secure even a single seat during 2012 Punjab Assembly polls. Besides Manpreet and Barnalas, the party celebrated the return of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s son, who shifted his loyalties towards SAD before 2012 polls after the Congress denied him party ticket from Samana.
On the other hand, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has been getting hold of senior party leaders, including the sitting MlAs. Only recently, sitting MlA from Talwandi Sabo Jeet Mohinder Sidhu has joined Akali Dal. Before him senior Congress leader Avtar Singh Brar too left the party to side with the SAD, and the list goes so on.
Dubbed as the “party hopper”, and a “turncoat”, Bir Devinder has virtually hopped from one party to another — starting from All India Sikh Student Federation (AISSF) in 1971, he joined Congress in 1978, then contested as an ‘Independent’, that followed him joining the Shiromani Akali Dal, the People’s Party of Punjab and now back to the Congress fold. The State party leadership, including the State party president Partap Singh Bajwa, former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, and senior leader and MlA lal Singh, has described Bir Devinder’s “homecoming” as a strength to the party.
Trivialising his own acts of shifting loyalties from one party to another, Bir Devinder recalled, “One day, my daughter-in-law take me to a closet where the flags, banners, batches, and other material pertaining to all parties were lying. She wanted to ask whether the next in the line is a jhadoo (broom). When I looked at the stuff closely, I found the maximum belong to the Congress….so I thought, why not to join it.”
On a serious note, he said that seeing the functioning and the working of all the parties, he had long ago decided to rejoin the Congress considering its secular image. He maintained that right from Bajwa to Bhattal, many Congress leaders worked for his re-entry in the party, which take shape only after Capt Amarinder put a word for him, and he was all thankful to him.
“Five years away from Congress, after working for this party for more than three-decades was very painful experience. I honestly admit that I get carried away by the illusion of destiny and traveled different terrains to find it. But, ultimately, my destiny is the Congress,” said a teary-eyed Bir Devinder.