Bathinda mp Harsimrat Kaur Badal today thanked Punjab Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh for acknowledging that the Peoples Party of Punjab (PPP) was a finished force during the course of an interaction with newsmen at Amritsar yesterday."We as well as the people of Bathinda and Punjab knew this all along but this public acknowledgement by Capt Amarinder, which has been published in a section of the press, is indicative of how the Congress to which Manpreet has hitched his horse to fight me thinks of him" she said. She said the very fact that this statement had been issued by Capt Singh who had publically termed Manpreet as a "summer storm" which would die its natural death in the run up to the last assembly elections, proved that the Congress leader held fast to his earlier views on the PPP chief.
In a statement here, the Bathinda mp said the stand taken by the Congress leader had left Manpreet Badal high and dry. "Earlier he tried to fool the electorate of Bathinda by issuing a statement that he had met Capt Singh over breakfast at Chandigarh and that the latter had promised to support him from Bathinda. "However even then Capt Singh denied the breakfast meeting nailing the PPP leader's lie".Harsimrat Badal said Capt Singh's statement was also significant due to the very fact that Manpreet Badal was now totally dependent on the Congress as the entire erstwhile rank and file of the Congress had deserted him . "He is now even contesting on the Congress symbol which he promised at Khatkar Kalan, the birthplace of Shaheed Bhagat Singh, that he would never do". She said the lack of faith shown by Capt Singh in his candidature proved that he was not accepted by the rank and file of the Congress which was ready to wash its hands off him", she added.
The Bathinda mp however said she did not agree with part of the statement made by Capt Amarinder when he compared the NDA prime ministerial candidate with Manpreet Badal. "I think any such comparison is delusional and is akin to comparing chalk with cheese", she added. She said the very fact that Capt Singh was targeting Mr Narindra Modi showed his desperation as it was becoming clear to him that the people of Amritsar had made up their mind to vote for making Mr Modi the prime minister and elect BJP candidate Arun Jaitely from Amritsar. "This is giving him goose pimples and he is using bluster to attack Mr Modi without realising that this will result in a tight backlash with the people of the holy city rejecting his candidature completely", she added.