Chandigarh/Muktsar, April 19: Former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar and his younger brother Ripjit Singh, a former MLA, joined the Shiromani Akali Dal today.
Parkash Singh Badal, Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal, Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia came to Jagmeet’s residence in Charewan village for the induction ceremony. Calling it ‘ghar wapsi’, Badal Senior appreciated Jagmeet’s oratorical skills. Sukhbir assured the Brar brothers they would be treated as family. “The SAD has been strengthened with your return,” he said.
Jagmeet, a former CWC member, said he had joined Akali Dal unconditionally. “A staunch Congressman for decades, the day I asked the party high command to introspect on the party’s string of defeats, they expelled me,” Jagmeet said.
Reacting sharply, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh dubbed Jagmeet Brar an “opportunist, who was desperate to return to his mother party (Congress), till the last moment.”
The CM said he had refused to acknowledge and respond to Jagmeet’s “desperate messages”. The CMO shared a series of messages sent by Jagmeet, suggesting that he could help “fix” the Badals and volunteered to contest from Bathinda Lok Sabha seat.
A few months after Captain took over as Punjab Congress chief in December 2015, Jagmeet was expelled from the primary membership of the party in April 2016 for indiscipline and for speaking against the Patiala royal scion.
Jagmeet, meanwhile, declined to comment on the CM’s claim that he (Jagmeet) had sent him messages on WhatsApp, requesting that he be taken back into the Congress.
Jagmeet’s loyalists, former Moga MLA Vijay Sathi, former Muktsar DCC chief Gurdas Girdhar, AS Rajeana and Sadhura Singh Daulatpura, stayed away.
