Chandigarh: Amid the ongoing rift in the Punjab Congress over alliance with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to contest the 2024 general polls together, the state Congress leader Navjot Sidhu on Sunday said that the ``INDIA alliance stands like a tall mountain’’ while urging his state party leaders to end the dispute and obey the party high command.
He also held that Punjab must understand that it was an election to choose the country's Prime Minister and not the Punjab chief minister.
The cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu took to X and wrote: "The I.N.D.I.A alliance stands like a tall mountain … a storm here and there will not affect its Grandeur !!! Any attempt to sabotage and breach this shield to safeguard our Democracy will prove futile … Punjab must understand that this is an election to choose India‘ s Prime Minister and not Punjab ‘s Chief Minister !!! #JudegaBharatJeetegaIndia".
Congress vs AAP in Punjab
Pertinently, Sidhu’s statement comes amid ongoing bitter anger among Punjab Congress leaders over the arrest of senior party legislator Sukhpal Khaira who was arrested on early September 28 morning in an eight year old case of alleged drug trafficking. After two-day police remand, the three-time MLA from Bholath seat, Khaira has been sent to 14-day judicial custody.
The top state Congress leaders including state part president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa who lashed out at the AAP government - which is in power in Punjab and Delhi – have accused AAP of indulging in political vendetta. They have questioned what kind of police probe is it in which Khaira has been arrested after eight years and held that it showed that "jungle raj" is prevailing in the state.
AAP's clarification
However, the AAP termed the arrest as part of its zero tolerance policy against drugs. The AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Kang said the AAP government had no political vendetta behind it as his arrest was made on the basis of evidence found against him during the SIT investigation. If the government wanted any political revenge, it had been a government for more than a year-and-a-half now and it would have been arrested earlier already.
