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Libra follows Galib, in the other
direction
WSN Network
 Chandigarh:
Ideology be damned. After Gurcharan Singh Galib dumped Congress,
described by Akali Dal supremo Parkash Singh Badal as Enemy Number
One of the Sikhs and Punjab, and got promptly an Akali Dal ticket
for Lok Sabha elections, Sukhdev Singh Libra will be joining the
Congress by trudging the same path in the opposite direction.
His explanation was very simple and candid: “Why shouldn’t I
join the Congress if it helps me to contest the elections?”
He said the Congress has assured him the ticket. The subtext
was that if he was not getting the ticket, he wasn't joining.
Libra has been camping in
Delhi along with
Congress leaders from the state awaiting the announcement of
tickets.
Libra, an MP from the erstwhile Rupnagar (reserved)
constituency, had been expelled from the Shiromani Akali Dal after
he abstained during the UPA trust vote in Parliament last year. He,
however, continued to remain an SAD MP as he successfully challenged
SAD’s move for his disqualification as an MP.
On Friday, the Central Election Committee headed by Congress
president Sonia Gandhi had deliberated upon various names for
Fatehgarh Sahib, including Malkit Dakha, Sadhu Singh and former
Punjab Congress chief Shamsher Singh Dullo, but it was almost clear
that the party was inclined to give the ticket to Libra.
When asked how he would justify joining the Congress as he
had earlier claimed to be a Taksali Akali, Libra said the face of
Congress had changed drastically with the lapse of time and now the
party could not be labelled as anti-Sikh or anti-Punjab.
“The elevation of Dr Manmohan Singh as the PM has brought
forth the identity of the Sikh community on a world map,” Libra
stated.
“Development is now the issue and there is no party to match
the Congress on this,” he said.
Meanwhile, SAD candidate Charanjit Singh Atwal, the Deputy
Speaker of Lok Sabha, has already started campaigning, coming up
with an argument that the Congress was finding it difficult to find
a candidate for the Fatehgarh Sahib seat and was banking its hopes
on an “outsider” (Libra).
18 March 2009
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