In a major jolt to the Aam Admi Party (AAP), several key organisational leaders on Sunday joined the Punjab Congress, alleging large-scale corruption and scams in Arvind Kejriwal’s party.Welcoming them into the party fold, Captain Amarinder Singh said AAP’s graph in Punjab was declining every day, even as he dismissed as humbug Kejriwal’s charges of a nexus between the Congress and the Akalis.Kejriwal and his team are spreading misinformation, and circulating pictures with fake connotations to mislead the people, said Captain Amarinder, adding that he had met Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal only once, as a condolence call, on the death of his wife.Kejriwal had come to Punjab with certain proclaimed principles which attracted the people, who, however, soon got disillusioned, said Captain Amarinder, adding that AAP had absolutely no standing in the state and had brought 50,000 people from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for campaigning. Captain Amarinder made it clear that new entrants joining the party would be put up as candidates only where the Congress did not have a good winnable client.On the occasion, Captain Amarinder Singh welcomed into the party fold AAP leaders Col. C.M. Lakhanpal, P.K. Sharma, Col Iqbal Pannu and Barpur Singh.
Highly educated and qualified, all these leaders expressed their total disillusionment with AAP, which they said had become a party of corrupt and exploitative individuals who were only interested in boosting their personal vested interests.The new joinees expressed their unconditional support for the Punjab Congress led by Captain Amarinder, who they described as a `people’s leader’ with a feel of the pulse of Punjab and exceptional credentials backed by exemplary track record.All these leaders had played an important role in the organizational matters of AAP, which they said was now virtually defunct as a political force in Punjab. They said AAP had failed to come up to the expectations of the people and their agenda was only to make Punjab prosperous again.Colonel C.M. Lakhanpal, the founder member and now state vice president of AAP Punjab, was responsible for holding all major functions of the party in Punjab besides being the Ludhiana Zone head of AAP. He said AAP was once a principles-based party but had compromised on those and had started bringing in people with shady background as candidates. He cited the example of the Bains brother, saying it was no longer possible to continue with AAP, given its current state.
The party that once had corruption as its main plank now had more than 60 of the party candidates with shady background.The group coordinator, P.K. Sharma, is grandson of Pt. Ramgopal Sharma, District Congress President, Sangrur. He left Canada to join AAP during the Anna Hazare movement but soon got disillusioned with the deep-rooted malaise in the party and decided to join the Congress.Another important new joinee to Congress is founder member Col Iqbal Pannu, senior vice president of trade and transport, as well as the industrial wing of AAP.Barpur Singh was the sector coordinator for AAP, handling three assembly constituencies of Punjab and also the leader of the Ramgarhia SC wing. He had been associated with AAP for two and a half years.Photo Caption: Left to Right - Bharpur Singh, Col Iqbal Pannu, PK Sharma, Captain Amarinder Singh, Col C.M.Lakhanpal and Congress MLA Rana Gurmeet Sodhi