Half-brother's move leaves PM 'saddened'

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said he was saddened by his half-brother Daljeet Singh Kohli’s decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“I feel very sad. I have no control. They are all adults," he said, while replying to queries on the sidelines of a Padma awards function here. Kohli joined the BJP at a public rally in Amritsar on Friday. He was welcomed into the party by BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Kohli is an Amritsar-based businessman.

However, Finance minister P Chidambaram termed Kohli’s joining BJP a “non-event”.  

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"As far as I know, he is a non-political person. He never made a political statement in his life. His joining a party is a non-event," he said at an AICC briefing in New Delhi.

Chidambaram, to a question on Prime Minister Singh’s nephew Mandeep having alleged that his uncle Daljeet had a “deal” with the BJP, said: "It is quite possible. Why should I disbelieve it? I think they had set up a dirty tricks department. Is that still functioning?”

Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh tweeted: “Modi/ BJP's shopping list-PM's relations Non BJP politicians and whoever is for sale. Desperadoes! Can corruption be checked like this? (sic)”

BJP leader Shahnwaz Hussain said "deal making" is what the Congress does, not the BJP. "This word isn't in our dictionary. Even Manmohan Singh's brother knows winds of change are blowing. He knows the entire country is with the BJP," he said.

On Friday, sources in the Prime Minister’s Office had said Daljeet’s joining BJP had “shocked” the PM and his family. But it is a shock quite usual in India’s polity. There are several instances of close relatives, siblings, father and son or even husband and wife becoming members of rival parties.