Two party mates turned rivals, and two rivals turned party mates, are animating a Vigilance inquiry into the sale of two plots in the posher part of Bathinda, Punjab. The dramatis personae are Bhagwant Singh Mann, Manpreet Singh Badal and Sarup Chand Singla – Singla filed the case over sale of the plots measuring about 1,254 sq m, Manpreet is the accused, and Mann as Chief Minister is the prosecutor. This is a dizzying spin in the revolving door of Punjab politics. While Mann was once a close aide of Manpreet in the latter's short-lived People's Party of Punjab (PPP), Singla now happens to be Manpreet's colleague in the BJP. Summoned before the Vigilance on July 24, Manpreet has been lashing out at Mann, and not sparing Singla either, uncharacteristic for the leader who has cultivated an image of a suave politician above the rough and tumble of everyman politics. Singla has prudently chosen silence as the better form of valour, while Mann is giving it back to his former party chief. The nephew of the late Akali doyen Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet Badal had a grand entry into Punjab politics as the foreign-educated nephew who would turn around the state's flickering fortunes. He served as the Finance Minister in the government headed by Badal Senior from 2007 to 2011, before quitting the Akali Dal, citing differences over issues related to the financial health of the state, subsidies etc. Manpreet formed the PPP soon after, with his party contesting the 2012 Assembly polls but not winning a single seat. As a PPP candidate, Mann lost from Lehragaga. Before long, Mann moved to the AAP, which had just begun testing the waters in Punjab. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls – the Modi wave election – the PPP contested in alliance with the Congress. Manpreet again lost, from Bathinda, to his sister-in-law Harsimrat Kaur Badal, by more than 20,000 votes. Mann, however, was one of the four unexpected AAP winners from Punjab. Ahead of the 2017 Vidhan Sabha polls, the PPP merged with the Congress, which came to power that year. Manpreet won from Bathinda Urban and returned as Finance Minister, this time under CM Amarinder Singh. The Bathinda plots in question were put up for auction in September 2021 by the Bathinda Development Authority (BDA). Singla, who was in the Akali Dal at the time, charged that a change was done in the land use clause to convert a commercial property into residential, which was then purchased by Manpreet. Singla filed a complaint in September 2021 with the Punjab Lokpal as well as Vigilance. The case in the Lokpal was later dismissed as Singla failed to appear before it and provide any evidence. In the 2022 Assembly polls, the AAP, with Mann as its face, swept the Punjab elections. Manpreet was among the big Congress losers, defeated in Bathinda Urban by a margin of more than 63,000 votes by AAP first-timer Jagrup Singh Gill. In December 2022, Singla, who finished behind even Manpreet in the election from Bathinda Urban, joined the BJP. He is now the president of the BJP's Bathinda unit. In January 2023, Manpreet also landed up in the BJP. On the day he was summoned by Vigilance, Manpreet hit back, calling the allegations against him a case of egos and “political vendetta of two individuals” to malign his reputation. In a statement, he said: “I welcome scrutiny and probity of public officials, and I will willingly answer any further questions. However, I want to set the record straight.” Manpreet mentioned the two allegations against me: that he had used his influence as Finance Minister to convert commercial plots into residential, and then purchased them at lower prices. “Both premises are false,” he said. “I informed the Lokpal and Vigilance that the land use change from commercial to residential was approved 10 years earlier, i.e. in 2012. This was because, for close to 10 years, there were no buyers for these commercial plots. I was not a minister or an MLA at that time, but in the Opposition as part of the PPP. Sarup Chand Singla was the MLA when this conversion took place. his party (the Akali Dal) was then in power. Then the question of misusing any authority on my behalf does not arise. In fact, Singla, who was in a position of authority as a member of the ruling party, should have questioned the decision at that time. But he chose to remain silent." Manpreet added, "The second allegation is that I influenced the bidding process and somehow purchased the plots at a lower price. However, the facts are: in 2021, the BDA announced e-auction of the aforesaid plots. It was widely published in major English and Punjabi dailies. The reserve price was fixed at Rs 29,900 per sq m. The plots were purchased by two persons at a price of Rs 30,348.5 per sq m. This time, as before, many plots advertised by the BDA remained unsold. Later, I purchased the plots by paying a premium over the price that they had purchased at.” Manpreet added that after the AAP government took over, the BDA had again advertised e-auction of the residential plots, and this time with a lower reserve price. Saying the AAP should clarify why it reduced the price, he said: “Even at a lesser reserve price today, over a dozen residential plots remain unsold. If I were to have purchased the plots through the e-auction, I would have (rather) saved money and the state exchequer would have been the loser.” Manpreet said he had always upheld “strict financial values”. “I served as a minister for nine years, and never did I use the official car or claim even a litre of petrol / diesel /gas during the discharge of my official duties. I travelled India using my own money. I own two tubewell connections, and though there is free power for the agricultural sector, I pay the bills out of a sense of duty. As a minister, I did not claim a single cup of tea as refreshment or allowance. Despite being an MLA five times, I have never claimed a single rupee as medical reimbursement.” In comparison, Manpreet said, AAP CM Mann uses public funds “for personal publicity and travel”. “This is a government that lacks planning, direction and priorities. We hear nothing about policies but the only narrative is about arrests.” On Singla, Manpreet said that while they were both in the BJP now, the former had been his political opponent in three elections. "His complaint, which is false and frivolous, smacks of hurt egos and personal sulking. Further, Singla has failed to present any evidence. The BJP is a structured party and I am sure that they will look into the entire episode." Singla was in direct fight with Manpreet in the 2017 and 2022 Assembly elections. In 2017, when Manpreet won, Singla finished third; in 2022, he finished behind Manpreet. In 2014, when Manpreet contested from the Bathinda parliamentary constituency and lost, he led by a huge margin in the Bathinda Urban Assembly segment from where Singla was the MLA at the time. After Manpreet's statement, Mann tweeted that Punjab knew all about the former finance minister's penchant for “theatrics”, “couplets” and “self-proclaimed honesty”, and accused him of having been hand in glove with elements who had “ruined the state”. On Manpreet's claims of not charging a penny from the State, the CM said the AAP government had full records of “every fruit produced in the lavish orchards of the former minister”. Manpreet again shot back, this time by posting an old video of Mann slamming “VIP culture” and praising him, while both were in the PPP.
