Congress party’s decision to place its bet on “loser” Manpreet Badal — the estranged nephew of the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal — has placed former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in a win-win situation.
looking for an opportunity to attack his rival State Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa, Amarinder has made an issue out of proposed alliance with Manpreet Badal for Bathinda seat for 2014 lok Sabha polls. Permanent Invitee of the Congress Working Committee, Amarinder made it clear that the Congress party would hardly gain anything by the move to join hands with the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP).
He doled out statistics to show what a poor performer Manpreet was in the previous 2012 State Assembly polls. “The Sanjha Morcha collectively bagged 5.5 per cent votes, out of which 3.5 per cent was the share of the left parties including the Communist Party of India (CPI), and the rest two per cent was PPP’s share,” said Amarinder. He added that the PPP managed to bag two per cent share of votes polled in 2012 State Assembly polls owing to “media hype” that projected Manpreet as the “next Chief Minister”.
Floated some three years back, the PPP failed to secure even single seat in the series of elections held during these years. The party failed to bag even one seat in 2012 assembly polls, with Manpreet, who contested polls from two constituencies — his home ground Gidderbaha, and Maur Mandi — facing defeats. He said: “It was Congress president Bajwa to decide, and it is up to the All India Congress Committee chief Sonia Gandhi to decide on Manpreet’s candidature…we would go by her decision.”
He maintained that he would express his opinion to the AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, only if he was asked to. “I would talk on Manpreet issue only if Mrs Gandhi asks me to give my viewpoint…I am not the member of the election committee,” Capt Amarinder told The Pioneer. Amarinder’s attack on the issue is in contrast to his earlier stand of forming an “united front” of all the Opposition parties against the ruling SAD-BJP alliance Government.
The offer was made by the Amarinder soon after the Congress was made to bite the dust by the SAD-BJP combine. At that time, Amarinder stated that PPP has cost the party defeat — a reason also cited by Sonia Gandhi. Moreover, the political experts concluded that the PPP candidates were responsible for defeat of at least 15 Congress candidates by close margins. With the Congress yet to make a formal announcement of the “alliance”, a banner of revolt has been raised by many congress leaders, including former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar.
Brar has alleged the State party chief for “keeping the party high command in dark regarding Manpreet”, and announced to take up the issue with them. On the other hand, Manpreet has made the decision for “party’s political survival”. Virtually powerless and all along to fight and win the battle against the Akalis, former finance minister has joined hands with his one-time foe to defeat the common enemy.
In fact, for both Manpreet and the Congress, the decision was more a matter of compulsion than choice as the Congress was also struggling hard to find a suitable candidate, strong enough to match the sitting Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal.