The President of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Pritam Singh has said the doors of Congress party are closed for Khanpur MLA Pranav Singh ‘Champion’. Singh’s statement assumes significance as speculations about future of controversial MLA from Khanpur are rife ever since he was expelled from the BJP on Wednesday. Incidentally, Champion was with the Congress party before defecting to BJP along with 11 other MLAs in the year 2016. He won from Khanpur in the assembly elections of 2017 on a BJP ticket.
BJP was forced to expel him from when a video of Champion brandishing firearms went viral. In the video, he is also seen using abusive language against Uttarakhand.
Responding to the questions of media persons at Rajiv Bhawan on Friday, the state party office of Congress party, Pritam Singh said that there is no place in the party for Champion. On the question of any possibility of return of Champion in the Congress party in future, the PCC President said that nothing can be said about the future. He added that in future it is also possible that BJP makes him its candidate in elections.
On the ensuing conclave of chief ministers of Himalayan states scheduled in Mussoorie on July 28, Pritam Singh said that the Congress party is with the government on the conclave provided it produces desired results. He however added that since double engine governments are in Delhi and Dehradun everyone expects that issues of state would be addressed but it is not happening. Singh expressed apprehension that the fate of the Conclave would be similar to the Investors summit the state government organised amid much fanfare. “The state got no benefit from the investor’s summit. In fact the expenditure incurred on the exercise was more than the investment generated out by the summit, he claimed.