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Six councillors join AAP amid tussle for mayor’s seat in Amritsar
Four of the six councillors used to be staunch supporters of former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu
Amid a tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress over the mayoral seat of Amritsar municipal corporation (MC), six councillors on Wednesday joined the ruling party that had registered a thumping victory in the recently held state assembly elections.
They joined the AAP in the national capital in presence of Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and Amritsar mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu.
Rintu had left the Congress to join the AAP ahead of the state assembly polls. Once a close aide of former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Rintu was apparently annoyed after the Congress denied him a ticket for the assembly elections.
Four of the six councillors -- Mandeep Kaur, Dalbir Kaur, Parminder Kaur and Ravinder Saini -- used to be staunch supporters of former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who lost to AAP’s Jeevanjot Kaur from Amritsar (East) constituency.
The two other councillors, who have switched from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), are Bholi and Davinder Singh.
Mandeep and Parminder’s husbands Amar Pehalwan and Harpal Singh, who were general secretary of the PPCC, have also joined the AAP.
“Two block presidents of the Congress from the East constituency — Paramjit Singh and Sudarshan Sharma — have also embraced the AAP in Delhi. We are happy with the working of the AAP, which is doing great work that the traditional parties didn’t do in the last many decades,” Pehalwan said.
It may be mentioned here that Harpal was the one who had installed big hoardings representing the ‘friendship’ of Sidhu and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan after the decision of opening of Kartarpur corridor.
Dalbir Kaur’s son Charanjit Singh Babba, a youth Congress leader in Amritsar, said, “We had been upset over the working of the party.”
The joining comes as a jolt to the Congress, which had gathered 56 councillors at the MC office to express no confidence against Rintu on Monday.
Municipal commissioner Sandeep Rishi, however, had termed the meeting of the 56 councillors null and void, citing the special meeting was cancelled a few days ago.
Some of the councillors, who joined the AAP on Wednesday, had also taken part in the meeting.
On March 14, 17 councillors had joined the AAP, paving a way for Rintu to stay as the city’s mayor. The total strength of the MC House is 85.
The Congress had 64 councillors, of whom 10 defected to other parties during the assembly polls. Of those 10, seven joined the SAD, while three, including the mayor, switched loyalties to the AAP.
With the new joinings, the mayor now has the support of at least 28 councillors, including some Independents. The Congress needs a magic figure of 46 in the House to dethrone the mayor.
“Our party has the support of around 30 councillors in the city. More councillors want to join our party and we are considering it,” Rintu said.
