Manpreet Singh Badal shows strength, will mobilise public support

Former finance minister Manpreet Badal, who was ousted from the state cabinet and Akali Dal last month for alleged anti-party activities, held a massive show of strength in Amritsar on Sunday and announced the launch of a ‘wake up, Punjab’ campaign.

Four-time Gidderbaha MLA Manpreet, who is a nephew of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, stopped short of announcing the formation of a new political outfit and said he would instead mobilise people first.

The campaign to highlight the “pathetic economic condition of the state” would be effectively launched in Faridkot, the MLA’s home district, on November 24 and would subsequently spread to all the 117 assembly constituencies.

The former finance minister visited the Golden temple and Jallianwala Bagh and addressed a public meeting, in which he criticised the chief minister for promoting nepotism in Akali Dal. He said the state needed urgent economic and administrative reform.

With assembly elections less than 18 months away, Manpreet’s camp is likely to emerge as a rallying point for anti-Badal factions and form a third front in the state.

The MLA was expelled from Akali Dal after he developed differences with several party leaders, particularly deputy chief minister and cousin Sukhbir Badal, over waiving subsidies, which, he said, had ruined the state’s economy.

He also questioned Sukhbir’s style of functioning and said the deputy CM had failed to deliver. He said Sukhbir was hardly serious about the state’s dismal economic condition and “his corporate style of working had delivered nothing”.

Manpreet, who had a meeting with Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi, produced papers to prove that the controversy over the waiver was unnecessary. He said he was only trying to help Punjab get out of a debt trap.

The controversy over the Centre’s proposal to waive the state’s Rs35,000-crore debt started after Manpreet made a statement in the assembly early this month on Pranab’s promise.