Over eight months after putting in his papers as Member of Punjab legislative Assembly (MlA) from Dhuri, Congress leader Arvind Khanna on Sunday decided to stick to its decision. Considered as “blue-eyed” boy of former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, Khanna on Sunday announced to resign as MlA from Dhuri Assembly segment of Sangrur parliamentary seat as well from the party. He was holding the post of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee’s general secretary.
Khanna maintained that he has decided to go ahead with his resignation from Punjab Vidhan Sabha and also active politics “to devote my time to my family and business”. He said that he had already conveyed about this decision to the party and the leaders. Congress leader had earlier announced his resignation from the membership of the House and also from the party on May 14, just two days before the declaration of 2014 lok Sabha election results.
later, Khanna dithers over putting in his papers and did not appear before the Vidhan Sabha Speaker to hand over his resignation on several occasions. It was believed that Khanna did not take call on his resignation all these months owing to the “pressure” from the Congress to avoid by-election. He had, at the time of resigning, had maintained that he had decided “to resign earlier in April last, but had not gone ahead that time for some last minute personal reasons”.
“…all this was put on hold after Captain Sahib was announced as the Congress candidate from Amritsar, I could not get myself to make any move when Captain Sahib was busy in elections and I was not sure how this would reflect on him and his election effort,” he had admitted on his official Facebook page, in May.
Also considered close to SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, Khanna was also believed to join the Akali Dal — which he did not ruled out. He had admitted that the option of joining Akali Dal was there in his mind though “not for any personal gain but for the fact that I could, through them, get a lot of work done in my halka and also contribute to the development of Punjab”.
Khanna was elected an MlA from Sangrur constituency in 2002, and in 2012 from Dhuri Assembly segment. He is also running an NGO, Umeed, through which, he said that he would continue social work in Punjab