CHANDIGARH
A day after former Congress legislator Sushil Kumar Rinku joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he was declared as the party’s candidate for the Jalandhar parliamentary byelection in Punjab on Thursday, giving political ammunition to the principal Opposition — the Congress —to target the ruling party.
Mr. Rinku was expelled from the Congress on Wednesday for allegedly indulging in anti-party activities.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said: “What surprises me is that the AAP that made government in Punjab with 92 MLAs doesn’t even have a single candidate to fight the Jalandhar bypoll. Also, why is the party, that once boasted about being an honest party of like-minded people, forced to buy tainted leaders of other parties by hook or by crook? The people of Punjab are aware of AAP’s anti-people face, their lies and fraud. They will teach a lesson to the leadership in the Jalandhar bypoll.”
The byelection to the Jalandhar Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after the death of Congress’ Santokh Singh Chaudhary in January this year, is slated for May 10.
Congress leader and MLA Sukhpal Khaira also flayed the AAP, saying that the party has adopted hypocrisy, and that while the party supremo Arvind Kejriwal had been repeatedly accusing the BJP of poaching MLAs and encouraging defection politics, the party has poached a candidate from the Congress, as they couldn’t find a sincere AAP volunteer.
