Ahead the crucial Shahkot assembly bypolls, Punjab’s former minister and senior Congress leader Brij Bhupinder lally on Friday joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Jalandhar in the presence of SAD party president Sukhbir Badal.
One of the claimant for the Congress ticket from Shahkot, lally was among five Congress leaders who had sought a “non-controversial” candidate for Shahkot bypolls.
Ignoring the demand, the party high command had announced the name of Hardev Singh alias laddi Sherowalia as Congress candidate for the bye-election, leading to protest within the party’s district unit.
The former Home Minister, lally had been demanding that laddi be replaced by a non-controversial candidate. He had argued that as the Congress have come to power on the agenda of ending corruption and mafia raj, especially against sand mafia and drugs, campaigning for a controversial leader will be difficult.
lally asked the people to beware of the evil designs of the Congress candidate saying that if laadi became more powerful, he would intensify illegal sand mining in the constituency which could damage bunds and have catastrophic effects.
Reacting to the development, former Power Minister and senior Congress leader Rana Gurjeet Singh said that lally joining SAD ahead of Shahkot by-election was “good riddance” for the party.
Maintaining that lally was quite an unknown entity in Shahkot, Rana Gurjeet said: “Honestly, not just me, even an average Congressman does not know who is this lally…His only claim to the fame was getting elected in 1992 and becoming a junior and non-performing minister in the government of late Sardar Beant Singh and after which he just vanished in the thin air.”
He said: “One can judge his performance and popularity from the subsequent outcome that Congress could never win this seat for five consecutive terms… And that is the reason that such a ‘popular’ leader had to join such a ‘popular’ party inside the hidden confines of his own house.”
“It is good that the opportunists like lally got exposed and self-exiled at the right time,” he added.