Amarinder's brother joins Akali Dal

Jan 07, 2012 |

Chandigarh

Tags:

In a jolt to Congress in Punjab ahead of assembly polls, Malwinder Singh, brother of former chief minister Amarinder Singh, on Saturday joined ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) after he was not given nomination from Samana Assembly seat.

Congress refused nomination to Malwinder from Samana and nominated Amarinder's son Raninder, leading to protests from him. Malwinder told a press conference here that "(It is an) unconditional (support). I have not joined with any precondition. I am joining because the value system of Congress has changed…Congress party now is not which it used to be earlier", Malwinder said. Accusing Congress of neglecting old party workers, the former army captain said "I am not here (in SAD) to contest. I am here (SAD) on principle", he said

Asked if SAD wanted him to contest elections, Malwinder put the onus on SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal.

"I am not contesting (election). I am supporting Akali Dal. It is up to him (Sukhbir) to decide," he said.

Malwinder expressed his unhappiness over not being given ticket from Samana Assembly, which he claimed to have nurtured for the last 35 years. "If this is the selection process, then what is the justification (in devoting time for the party)"? he said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/118118" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-e7266d49a5eab5851464ca243c2fe8b6" value="form-e7266d49a5eab5851464ca243c2fe8b6" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85832224" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>