Manpreet Badal wins over old loyalist Navjot Dahiya
Tuesday, 19/01/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
JALANDHAR: Congress leader Manpreet Singh Badal on Monday visited the house of his old loyalist in the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) Dr Navjot Dahiya, who has not joined the Congress with the former finance minister.
Congress leader Manpreet Singh Badal talking to mediapersons in Jalandhar on Monday.
Dahiya and other key supporters of Manpreet, including secretary general of PPP Gurpreet Bhatti, have joined the Congress due to uncertainty about their future in the Congress.
“Dahiya is not my PPP colleague but is a family member. There was no resentment in his mind about merging the party into the Congress. He lives in my heart and will remain so in future as well,” said Manpreet, after having a closed-door meeting with Dahiya and his supporters. Dahiya had contested the 2012 assembly polls on the PPP ticket from Shahkot assembly segment and had got more than 10,000 votes.
His entry into the Congress is set to upset the equations in the Congress from the Shahkot segment where the party is in search of a credible face.
Dahiya also expressed satisfaction over the meeting with Manpreet and, later on, accompanied Manpreet to Amritsar where he was scheduled to pay homage at the Golden Temple.
Sources said Manpreet assured Dahiya of having recognition in the Congress and has assured him to assign a new role in the party.
Later, Manpreet took on the AAP for running a negative agenda in Punjab and claimed that as elections are approaching, the so-called bubble of the AAP would burst soon.
“Punjab doesn’t need this kind of campaigning. They have a long list of problems, but don’t have any solutions. But, let me tell you, the Congress has solutions to all the problems of Punjab and under the leadership of Captain Amarinder Singh, the party will put up a positive agenda before the people very soon,” he said.
