Burying his differences with the central party leadership over the apology tendered by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to senior Akali leader Bikram Majithia, Punjab’s Leader of Opposition Sukhpal Singh Khaira will lead a delegation of AAP MLAs to New Delhi Wednesday to show solidarity with the party in the tussle against the Lieutenant Governor. Khaira’s move comes on a day when Kejriwal announced an end to the sit-in and Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the IAS officers would be returning to work. Only a few office-bearers of Punjab unit of AAP went to Delhi to enquire about the health of Sisodia and Satyendra Jain who were hospitalised while sitting on protest since June 11. Even as chief ministers of four states went to New Delhi to express solidarity with the AAP leadership, the party’s Punjab unit, which is the main opposition party in the state with 20 MLAs, remained conspicuously absent. Speaking to The Indian Express, Khaira said it did not matter if Kejriwal had ended the sit-in and that the party MLAs would still try to meet him as scheduled. Asked if the bitterness created by Kejriwal’s apology to Majithia was now a thing of the past, Khaira said no one from Delhi had expressed any unhappiness with him till now over any issue and that the visits of Manish Sisodia to Chandigarh had also helped tide over the matter. Kejriwal has not visited Punjab even once after the Punjab Assembly polls in February 2017. In the aftermath of the Kejriwal’s apology, there had been a harsh reaction from the senior leadership of AAP in Punjab which had led to the then state unit president Bhagwant Mann and co-president Aman Arora tendering their resignations. At one point of time, the party seemed to be tottering towards a split with Sukhpal Khaira and Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu coming down very hard on the Delhi leadership for not consulting the state unit before making the apology to Majithia. Khaira had also announced at the time that he would not be attending any meetings with the central leadership in Delhi and that henceforth all meetings would be held in Punjab. Khaira’s detractors within the party say he thought of expressing solidarity with Kejriwal due to the furore over his remarks concerning the “Referendum 2020”, a separatist Khalistani agenda. “There are reports within the party that Khaira may soon be removed as Leader of Opposition given the negative publicity that the party has received over “Referendum 2020”. Hence, he is trying to mend the fences,” said an AAP MLA who did not want to be named. Khaira’s supporters, on the other hand, say he had led a party delegation to the Punjab Governor over the issue of AAP government’s ill-treatment at the hands of the Delhi Lt Governor and dismissed any talk of his removal. Respite for Khaira from Sikhs for Justice Sikhs for Justice, the prime movers behind “Referendum 2020”, said Saturday that they were yet to see any statement from Sukhpal Khaira which supported the demand for Khalistan. Speaking to The Indian Express on phone from New York, the legal advisor to SFJ, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said that while he did not want to comment on the activities of Indian politicians, he had not yet read any comment by Khaira in favour of Khalistan. He also condemned both Khaira and Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for acknowledging the supremacy of Constitution of India.
