Rebel AAP MLAs meet Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, merge outfit

New Delhi, June 17, 2021

The three rebel MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) who formed Punjab Ekta Party, on Thursday, met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and announced the merger of their outfit with the Congress.

The MLAs who met Rahul Gandhi include former Leader of Opposition (Punjab) Sardar Sukhpal Singh Khaira (MLA, Bholath); Sardar Jagdev Singh (MLA, Maur); and Pirmal Singh (MLA, Bhadaur).

The merger is seen as a shot in the arm for Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh.

Amarinder Singh, ahead of his meeting with the party high command in New Delhi on June 3, had inducted the three AAP rebel legislators -- Sukhpal Khaira, Pirmal Singh and Jagdev Singh Kamalu -- into the party.

The chief minister before leaving for Delhi had welcomed these three MLAs into the party fold.

Firebrand Khaira, once a hard critic of Amarinder Singh, had quit the Congress and joined AAP in December 2015. He was elected from the Bholath assembly seat in 2017.

However, Khaira, a former leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, resigned from the primary membership of the AAP in January 2019 and had also floated his own outfit, the Punjabi Ekta Party.

The other two MLAs, Kamalu and Dhaula, are first-timers.

IANS