Even as deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal met disgruntled SAD leader Hans Raj Hans on Monday at the latter’s house, flip-flop on the part of the singer continued as party supporters kept guessing whether he will support the SAD candidate from Jalandhar parliamentary segment or not.
First, Hans admitted that he would support the party candidate from Jalandhar Pawan Tinu in the presence of Sukhbir, but later refused to do so when the SAD president left his house.
The singer, who has been openly opposing Tinu’s candidature terming him a “fanatic”, admitted to campaign for the candidate when “convinced” by the SAD chief.
“Hans will address public meetings with the party candidate besides urging the Balmiki community (to which Hans belongs) to support SAD in Malwa, especially in Bathinda parliamentary segment,” Sukbhir said after meeting the singer. But as soon as Sukhbir left the singer’s house, he declared that he would not support Tinu unless asked specifically by the SAD chief or chief minister Parkash Singh Badal.
“I will campaign for Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Bathinda. If I remain in Bathinda, how can I campaign for Tinu? I will be unavailable here,” said Hans.
{{/usCountry}}“I will campaign for Harsimrat Kaur Badal in Bathinda. If I remain in Bathinda, how can I campaign for Tinu? I will be unavailable here,” said Hans.
{{/usCountry}}In a statement that may bring embarrassment for the SAD chief, the singer said, “Our party chief has admitted that the Doaba region has been deprived of representation in the state government. He has signalled that I will be sent to the Rajya Sabha.”
Interestingly, Hans’ supporters, including some local Congress leaders such as Amrit Khosla, Pawan Baba and Raj Kumar Raju, raised slogans in favour of the singer when the meeting was going on. Sukhbir listened to them patiently.
Sukhbir said there were certain issues raised by the singer’s supporters and all of them had been resolved.