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Jolt to Punjab Congress: Gurdaspur leader Raman Bahl to join AAP
Quits as chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board, says Congress has discarded its ideology, put party-hoppers at forefront
In a jolt to the ruling Congress in Gurdaspur district, senior party leader Raman Bahl on Monday resigned as chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board (PSSSSB) and is set to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday.
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Bahl had not been allotted the Congress ticket in the 2017 assembly elections from Gurdaspur constituency, which is represented by Brinderjit Singh Pahra at present. Bahl had lost hope of getting the ticket for the 2022 elections.
Though he did not cite any reason in the resignation letter, he expressed disappointment over party affairs. “The Congress has almost discarded its ideology and core issues. Traditional Congressmen are getting no space in the party. They have been ignored. On the other hand, people who have come from other parties are placed at the forefront. Naturally, traditional Congressmen will feel suffocated. The influence of money and muscle power has increased,” he said over phone.
Bahl said that his family has been in public service for a century. “My grandfather joined public life in the presence of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai. My father represented Gurdaspur four times in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. People are well aware of our services to the party and I don’t need to explain,” he said.
Former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh appointed him as chairman of the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board on March 25, 2018, and a year and a half of his tenure was left.
Bahl, the son of former minister Khushal Bahl, is a Gurdaspur-based lawyer. He has been president of the Gurdaspur Municipal Corporation twice and was a Panjab University senate member from 2008-12. He also served as senate member of Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, from 2004-06. At GNDU, he remained a member of the syndicate for a year. He had unsuccessfully contested the 2012 assembly elections from Gurdaspur on a Congress ticket.
His father, who died in 2014, was elected MLA from Gurdaspur assembly constituency in 1972, 1977, 1992 and 2002 and remained minister in the governments headed by Giani Zail Singh, Beant Singh, Harcharan Singh Brar and Capt Amarinder Singh.
Though he did not disclose his next course of action, sources close to him said he is joining the Aam Aadmi Party in his bastion in the presence of central party leaders from Delhi.
