Giving a new twist to Punjab politics in the election year, Manpreet Singh Badal, the estranged nephew of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, on Friday merged his People’s Party of Punjab with the Congress.
The move is likely to help the Congress which will take on a resurgent Aam Admi Party (AAP) and the SAD-BJP alliance in the assembly polls, scheduled to be held early next year.
The merger was announced at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh and party leaders Shakeel Ahmed, Ambika Soni and Partap Singh Bajwa.
Amarinder Singh said that the Congress had lost the last two assembly polls by very slender margin of votes and the party was working towards alliances. He identified the left parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party as potential allies, saying that merger of the PPP had been concluded.
“We are very happy. Manpreet Badal has merged his party with us... Hope we will be able to forge a strong alliance for the election,” he said, adding Manpreet Badal underplays his position but he has a pan-Punjab image and his party was present in all districts.
Manpreet Badal said his party was merging with the Congress unconditionally.
Noting that he had been the youngest legislator and youngest finance minister in Punjab, he said he had parted ways with the Shiromani Akali Dal-led government in 2010 following differences with its leadership and had floated a new party in 2011.
He said that Punjab was once the leading states of the country but had badly lost its position.
Manpreet Badal, who fought the 2014 lok Sabha election on Congress symbol from Bathinda against Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the wife of his first cousin and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, and lost narrowly, said that merger talks had been in the works for some months.
The PPP earlier formed an alliance with the left and other smaller parties under the banner of ‘Sanjha Morcha’ just before the January 2012 assembly elections in Punjab but none of them won any seat.
However, the PPP garnered a six percent vote share, playing a spoilsport for the Congress that ended up with 46 seats as against 56 of the Shiromani Akali Dal and 12 of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Three seats in the 117-member assembly were won by Independents.
The Congress and the PPP had subsequently announced an alliance in March 2014 for elections to the 13 lok Sabha seats in the state.
