Manpreet Badal, the estranged nephew of Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Parkash Singh Badal, on Friday, joined the Congress after meeting party vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Hectic parleys were held between the former Akali leader and Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh and other senior party leaders before the decision was taken to merge Badal’s outfit, People’s Party of Punjab, with Congress, sources said.
The merger was sealed on Friday during a meeting between Badal and Rahul at the latter’s residence here where Singh and AICC General Secretary Shakeel Ahmad were also present.
SAD leader and Lok Sabha member Sharanjit Singh Dhillon said, “SAD-BJP is not going to be affected by such developments.”
In the formal announcement made at the press conference held in Delhi, Lok Sabha member and general secretary of Congress Shakeel Ahmed said:
Happy to announce that Manpreet Badalji’s People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) has formally merged with the Congress.
The media briefing was attended by senior Congress leaders like Amarinder Singh and Partap Singh Bajwa, who are at loggerheads with each other since long.
Manpreet Badal had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 General Elections from Bathinda on a Congress ticket against his sister-in-law and Akali leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
He was earlier part of the ruling SAD government and held the finance portfolio until his exit from the party over differences with his uncle Parkash Singh Badal and cousin Sukhbir Singh Badal.
He had thereafter launched the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP).
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)