Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), it appears, has won a battle before the electoral war in Punjab. AAP, which emerged as the principal opposition party in 2017 state assembly polls, has roped in former Inspector General of Punjab Police Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh — the ‘protagonist’ of the state’s battle against sacrilege.
AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is reaching Amritsar on Monday morning reportedly to induct the former Punjab cop into the party. In fact, the party is also eyeing the political bigwigs of the State to expand its base and increase its foothold with elections slated to be held in another seven to eight months.
Speculations are rife that besides taking Kunwar Vijay on board, the party is also roping in Punjab BJP stalwarts and former Ministers Laxmi Kanta Chawla and Anil Joshi. However, it remains uncertain whether these two BJP leaders would also be joining the party on Monday.
Even as neither anyone from AAP nor Kunwar Vijay have officially confirmed the development, sources have informed The Pioneer that the former cop is set to hold AAP’s “broom”.
The development assumes significance as the sacrilege issue has again taken the centre stage of Punjab politics after the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s adverse order in Kotkapura firing incident, quashing the probe by the Government-constituted Special Investigation Team, led by Kunwar Vijay Partap.
Sources disclosed that Kejriwal has all along been asking the party’s Punjab unit leaders to approach the IPS officer, who has taken voluntary retirement after High Court’s order. The 1988-batch Punjab cadre IPS officer was scheduled to retire in
2029.
Kunwar Vijay, in his report, has pointed fingers at the then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the then Deputy-cum-Home Minister Sukhbir Badal for sacrilege incidents. At the same time, the former cop has also blamed the State Government for not defending the case properly in the High Court.
It was not unknown that Kunwar Vijay was one of the most trusted officers of the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who had all along defended him despite stiff opposition by the rivals. The Chief Minister had described Kunwar Vijay as a “highly competent and efficient” officer.
With Kunwar Vijay set to join AAP, the political equations in the state would also took a new turn as AAP’s masterstroke would provide it the much-needed boost and a big jolt to the traditional political parties — ruling Congress, the BJP, and the SAD — which are already struggling to keep their support base intact.
Alike 2017, the sacrilege cases would once again become a major poll issue in the 2022 assembly elections, giving enough ammunition to AAP to target the Akalis — which was in power when the sacrilege incidents took place; and also the ruling Congress — which is under severe criticism by its own partymen for delaying the probe and having failed to punish the culprits.