Bathinda mp Harsimrat Kaur Badal today said acting like the true chameleon he was, Bathinda PPP – Congress candidate Manpreet Singh Badal was now finding fault with the Congress on whose symbol he contested the elections and which was responsible for most of the 4.94 lakh votes polled by him.In a statement here, Mrs Badal said it was ironical that instead of thanking the Congress for the support extended by the party to his candidature, Manpreet’s kith and kin were finding fault with Congress leaders now. She said simultaneously an effort was being made by Manpreet to project the mostly Congress vote share polled by him as the predominant vote share of the PPP. “This is a ploy to revive the PPP which is virtually a defunct party with its cadre having abandoned Manpreet during the last two years”.Mrs Badal said Manpreet’s bid to claim the 4.94 lakh votes polled by him as his alone by finding faults with the Congress legislators and “halqa incharges” was in keeping with his character. “He is disowning a party which contributed a bare minimum of four lakh votes to his kitty”. Mrs Badal said she was making this assertion based on the fact that the Congress had got four lakh votes at its lowest ebb in 2009 when its party candidate Raninder Singh lost the election by more than 1.20 lakh votes. “If you take into account the 20,000 plus votes polled by the CPI in 2009 you will realise that Manpreet’s PPP as well as SAD(Longowal) were able to stitch together only 70,000 odd votes by themselves in the current election”, she added.
Stating that instead of finding faults with others, he should introspect on his own actions, the mp said Manpreet was fond of boasting of his four consecutive victories as an mla from Gidderabaha. “You must remember that these victories occurred as long as you had the blessings of Sardar Parkash Singh Badal. You lost abysmally from both Gidderbaha and Maur in 2012 as soon as you set out on your own. Even in the recently concluded parliamentary election you would have lost your security deposit if you had contested on the PPP ticket. That is why you decided to stitch together a grand coalition of the PPP, Congress, CPI and SAD (Longowal) which had together got more than 6.10 lakh votes in the 2012 assembly elections from Bathinda. However under your leadership even the vote share of the coalition went down by 1.15 lakh which is a true barometer of your popularity”, the mp added.Stating that truth always prevailed, Mrs Badal also advised Manpreet to set his vanity aside for once and recognise the fact that the people had seen through him. “You used Congress crutches to get the votes this time. But next time the Congress will also not be with you as people have gone against Congress legislators seen to be aligned with you even as they have given a lead to Talwandi Sabo legislator Jeet Mohinder Sidhu for resigning his seat and joining the SAD immediately after your candidature from Bathinda was confirmed”, Mrs Badal said.