Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Wednesday dubbed former Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal’s resignation from the party as “good riddance” and said that he was always “power hungry”. Congress leader Badal jumped ship to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Delhi today.
Speaking on his decision to quit, Badal accused the party of factionalism and said it was difficult to operate in a party which is at “war with itself”.
“Good riddance. @MSBADAL is congenitally power hungry. He joined @INCIndia knowing party was winning. 5 yrs is long time for someone like him to stay out of power for reasons not unknown to anyone.Instead of crying martyrdom, he should be apologising to Congress for betrayal,” Warring tweeted.
In another tweet, tagging Badal, he wrote, “No Mir Jafar has ever risen to remain a king be remembered for, their ignominious fate remains etched in political history of India.”
With his resignation, Badal joins a string of senior Congress leaders from Punjab to leave the grand-old party and join the BJP. Earlier, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Sunil Jakhar, among other leaders, had joined the saffron party.
Badal, who is the nephew of former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, joined the Congress in 2016, after formally merging the People’s Party of Punjab with Congress. A five-time MLA, he was the Finance minister in the previous Congress government.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Daljeet Singh Cheema also took a dig at the Congress following Badal’s resignation, and said that the BJP must also reserve seats for “original BJP leaders”, given the speed of resignations coming from the Congress.
“Keeping in view the rapid joining of Congress leaders in the Punjab BJP unit, I humbly appeal to the BJP high command to reserve at least 3 Lok Sabha & 23 Vidhan Sabha seats for original BJP leaders who have been working hard for the party since decades,” said Cheema in a tweet.
Taking a swipe at Badal, Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said on Twitter, “A man who left the Akali Dal to make his own party and then joined the Congress, was made finance minister for five years, then lost by a record margin of over 60,000 and thereafter went into hibernation now joins BJP.”
“Punjab Congress par se badal chhat gaye hain (clouds over the Punjab Congress have cleared),” Ramesh said in Hindi.