Party-hopper Jagmeet Brar joins SAD; Amarinder mocks him

Having remained with the Congress and the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) earlier, former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar on Friday joined the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab.

Brar, who was elected twice to the Lok Sabha in 1992 and 1999, was inducted into the party in the presence of SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal, party patron and five-time Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Union Minister Harsimrat Badal.

Reacting to Brar joining the SAD, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh mocked him saying that the move was an "opportunistic, last-ditch resort to rescue his political career after failing to wriggle his way back into the Congress".

Citing a series of WhatsApp messages received from Brar over the last several weeks, Amarinder Singh said "the former MP was apparently desperate to get back into politics and had decided to go with the Badals, whom he promised 'to fix in Punjab' if the Congress agreed to take him back".

"It was obvious that Brar had a political agenda to further and was ready to do it by hook or by crook. The former MP had, for the last several weeks, been trying unabashedly to get into the Congress but with the party high command refusing to intervene and I not responding to any of Brar's desperate messages, the former MP had decided to throw his weight behind the SAD," he added.

Brar and Badals, at his induction ceremony into the SAD, said it was "ghar wapasi" for the former Congress leader. Brar said he would be happy with any role assigned to him by the SAD.

Brar had, at one time, been a member of the Congress' powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC).

"The Congress was better off without such opportunistic and self-seeking individuals. They (the Badals) must be equally desperate to take in a carpetbagger like Brar," Amarinder Singh said.

Brar was expelled from the Congress in November 2016 for his anti-party remarks. "It is laughable that Brar joined SAD just 10 days after seeking forgiveness for his acts and promising to give his 'remaining years' to the 'Maharaja of Patiala' and to 'fix the Badals in Punjab'," he said, quoting WhatsApp messages in recent days from Brar to him.

--IANS

js/mag/