Senior Doaba Cong leader Col C D Kamboj (retd) quits party, joins AAP

AAP convenor Sucha Chhotepur (extreme left) with Col C D Kamboj (retd) in Jalandhar on Tuesday. (Express Photo)

PUNJAB Congress vice-president Col C D Kamboj (retd) quit the party and joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday. A senior leader from Doaba, Kamboj — a loyalist of Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Captain Amarinder Singh — had twice fought assembly elections on a Congress ticket from Shahkot, an Akali stronghold. He joined AAP in the presence of the party’s national organisation building head, Durgesh Pathak, and Punjab convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur in Jalandhar.

Kamboj said he quit the Congress as he “felt suffocated” in the party. “AAP has taken very good steps to curb corruption. Two of AAP’s ministers in Delhi were removed by the party after they were charged with possessing fake educational degrees,” he said, adding that the Congress does not have the capacity to fight the SAD-BJP regime due to its internal bickering. “I had been defeated by my own partymen in the previous two elections that I fought at Shahkot. Even then I managed a good number of votes in an Akali-majority area,” Kamboj said, adding that those responsible for his defeat were never punished by the party.

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While welcoming Kamboj into the party fold, Sucha Singh Chhotepur used the opportunity to slam the Punjab government. He held the SAD-BJP regime responsible for the desecration incidents in the state and alleged that instead of punishing the culprits, the government has picked up innocent people. “Till date, police officials responsible for killing two youth in Kotkapura have not been booked by name,” the AAP state convenor said.

On reports that former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu would join AAP and he may be declared as the party’s CM candidate in Punjab, Chhotepur denied having contacted the cricketer-turned-politician.