As bete noire Manpreet quits Cong, Raja Warring says ‘good riddance’

Warring has been at loggerheads with Manpreet for long. When both were in Congress, Warring was a vocal critic of Manpreet. Warring represents Gidderbaha constituency (Muktsar district) from where Manpreet had started his political career and he had won elections from this seat on Akali Dal ticket in 1995, 1997, 2002 and 2007. In 2012 Manpreet contested on PPP (People’s Party of Punjab) symbol from Gidderbaha against Warring, but couldn’t win the election.

Afterwards Manpreet joined Congress, shifted his base in Bathinda and contested elections twice from Bathinda Urban in 2017 and 2022. In 2021, on various occasions, Warring had claimed that Manpreet was getting cosy with Badals (of Akali Dal) and was giving grants to many Akali leaders in the guise of development works. He had even alleged that Manpreet was interfering in his constituency. Also, he had complained to the then Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh about it.

On May 22, 2021, an illegal liquor factory was busted in Badal village of Muktsar district. Badal village happens to be the native village of former Punjab CM Parkash Singh Badal and also that of Manpreet. Warring at the time had questioned the silence of the Badals in this incident. Two people were arrested and an SIT was later formed to probe the matter.

On June 27, 2021, Sarup Chand Singla, former Shiromani Akali Dal MLA (now in BJP) from Bathinda, had done a Facebook live from Bathinda’s thermal plant and levelled allegations of illegal sand mining taking place on the premises. Later, Warring had tweeted Singla’s video and had asked the then CM Captain Amarinder Singh to conduct an inquiry into the case and bring the culprits to book. Singla had blamed Manpreet and his brother-in-law Jaijeet Johal for the illegal sand mining.

On the last day of campaign of Vidhan Sabha polls on February 18, 2022, Warring’s speech at Gidderbaha market had sparked a controversy as he alleged that all the Badals (including Congress’s Manpreet Singh Badal who was his Cabinet colleague ) were playing a fixed match. He asked the people to defeat all the Badals from wherever they were contesting, that is, he gave a direct message to people to defeat his colleague Manpreet, the then finance minister of Punjab who was contesting from Bathinda Urban.

Eventually all the Badals, including Manpreet, were defeated in the elections. But Warring scraped through. In a social media post, Warring on Wednesday said: ‘No Mir Jafar has ever risen to remain a king be remembered for, their ignominious fate remains etched in political history of India. Pipal de Patia ve, kehi khar khar laayi aa pat jhare purane ve rutt nawaian di aayi ve (O pipal’s leaf ..why are you making this noise ..old leaves have shed ..it is the season of new ones to come out ) @MSBADAL #NewCongress.’

When asked by the media about Warring’s ‘New Congress’ and ‘Good Riddance’ comments over his exit from Congress, Manpreet quite uncharacteristically said, “Saste lokan vaste main mehnge athru nahi vahanda (I don’t waste my costly tears for cheap people).”

On Manpreet joining BJP, his brother-in-law Jaijeet Johal said, “During the Vidhan Sabha polls, Warring had aggressively campaigned against Manpreet. But even after winning the election, Warring kept on saying from various platforms that he was responsible for Manpreet’s defeat. We could also have indulged in a verbal spat with Warring, but we held our tongue as the party’s image otherwise would have taken a beating. We had apprised about this to the high command but got no response. In other words, when there is no respect for you in a house, it is better to leave that house.”