AAP's Punjab ally announces merger with Congress

Chandigarh: Sukhpal Singh Khairam, the former Aam Aadmi Party leader and the founder of Punjab Ekta Party, announced his party's merging with the Congress. Khairam said he felt regret for joining AAP that, he termed, a party of the one-man show, leaving Congress in 2015.

Bholath MLA Khaira, Bathinda district MLA Jagdev Singh Kamalu and Bhadaur MLA Pirmal Singh Khalsa met Rahul Gandhi and joined the party formally at his Tuglaq Lane residence in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat and the party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

Khaira quit the Congress to form the Punjab Ekta Party after he was removed as the leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly.

"The AAP is only a one-man show, and there is nothing beyond Arvind Kejriwal in the party," Khaira said. He further slammed the party as undemocratic with no system of internal democracy or dialogue. "Kejriwal is in the habit of scoring self-goals," he said while adding that NRIs who stood with the AAP in the last Punjab Assembly polls are disillusioned. Though NRIs supported the party financially in the last elections, no money reached the people.

Urging NRIs to reimpose their trust in the Congress, he said, "The trust of the NRIs in the AAP stands shattered."