Chandigarh, May 19 (IANS) Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday congratulated former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that the "right man is in the right party".
He said more leaders are likely to desert the sinking ship of the Congress in the coming days.
In a statement issued here, Amarinder Singh said the exodus from the Congress will continue and the party is headed for an imminent doom.
"Honest and upright leaders like him (Sunil) cannot breathe in the Congress anymore," he said, adding, "That space (in the Congress) has become too stifling and too suffocating."
The former Chief Minister recalled how within the span of less than a year, the Congress has completely collapsed in Punjab due to one wrong decision.
"I was the Chief Minister, while Sunil was the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee President, and everything was going so well. We were headed for repeating the government just less than a year ago," he said, adding, "One wrong decision by the leadership proved suicidal for the party that is now staring at its own doom in Punjab and elsewhere in the country."
The agitated farmers are demanding the repeal of the three farm laws passed by Parliament last year and have expressed apprehension that they would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporate houses.
US Vice President Kamala Harris has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that she was asking Pakistan to act on terrorism and ensure that terror groups do not target New Delhi or Washington, according to India's Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.
The BJP, which had been politically attacking Amarinder Singh in the last several years, has launched blistering attacks against Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Congress high command (Gandhi family) with the help of Amarinder Singh's recent comments against Sidhu and the Congress.
Rahul Gandhi met Channi along with the party's Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat and General Secretary K.C. Venugopal late on Thursday. Before that, Rahul held a separate meeting with Rawat.
According to orders, he would also be the Principal Secretary, Personnel and Vigilance, besides Financial Commissioner, Development, and Principal Secretary, Food Processing, Horticulture and Governance Reforms and Public Grievances.
Senior SAD leaders Prem Singh Chandumajra, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema on Tuesday said it was most unfortunate that even after admitting that some wrong elements wanted to defame the 'kisan sangharsh', Rajewal had neither secured an unconditional apology from those guilty of hooliganism nor subjected them to the process of law.
