Faction-ridden AAP fights over 'seating order' in Punjab Assembly

The infighting in the AAP's Punjab unit escalated today with the rebel MLAs shifting to the back benches in the Assembly, blaming the other faction for getting the seating order changed.

The new Leader of Opposition, Harpal Singh Cheema, had allegedly asked the Vidhan Sabha secretariat to shift the seats of rebel MLAs Sukhpal Singh Khaira and Kanwar Sandhu from the first row.

But there is no official word from the secretariat that the seats have been changed.

Cheema had replaced Khaira as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly after a controversial decision by their Aam Aadmi Party.

The Khaira group had then revolted.

 

Khaira and seven other MLAs in his faction sat in the back row as the Monsoon session of the Assembly began today.

The Aam Aadmi Party has 20 MLAs in Punjab.

While Khaira accused Cheema of getting the seating order changed, the new Leader of Opposition said nothing like that had happened.

"I want to say that Sukhpal Khaira has been allotted a seat in the front, you can check yourself, Cheema told reporters.

Now where he chooses to sit, we have no control on this," he said.

But Khaira claimed, By changing the seating order, they have displayed their narrow thinking."

They want to humiliate their own colleagues before the people and they have done so," he told reporters.

"Our colleagues have decided that we should be seated in the back rows and we happily accept this," Khaira claimed.

Hours before the session began, Cheema sent senior party legislator H S Phoolka and three other MLAs to persuade Khaira to unitedly take on the ruling Congress in the Punjab Assembly.

On Cheema's unity efforts, Khaira said, "They say one thing on camera and do the opposite.

Khaira said Phoolka told him before the session that all AAP MLAs should adopt one strategy in the House over the Justice Ranjit Singh Commission report on incidents of desecration of sacred books.

Asked if his faction will go along with the Cheema group outside the House to take on the state government, Khaira said, "They are welcome to join us because 99.9 per cent of the cadres are with us.