Manpreet Badal has formally joined the Congress after he merged his People's Party of Punjab into the grand old party.
The merger took place at Congress vice president, Rahul Gandhi's residence in New Delhi in the presence of Punjab Congress chief, Capt Amrinder Singh.
"We are happy that Manpreet ji joined us. His entire party met (Congress vice-president) Rahul ji. We are starting our campaign on a good note. We are now looking for an alliance for the next election. We are trying to get all secular forces against fundamentalist force," said Capt Amrinder Singh.
People's Party of Punjab had contested the last state assembly election in 2012 but failed to win any seat in the 117 seat Punjab assembly. Manpreet was fielded jointly by the Congress and PPP from Bathinda Parliamentary constituency against Harsimrat Badal in 2014 general election. Manpreet lost the election by a margin of under 20000 votes.
Manpreet Badal was the state Finance Minister when he quit the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in 2010 due to differences with his uncle Parkash Singh Badal and cousin Sukhbir Singh Badal to raise his own political outfit.
On Tuesday, Manpreet said: "It (the merger) is required to get rid of the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the Badal family. Punjab needs to move beyond the personality-based politics."
On being asked why he didn't join AAP, he said the party had approached him earlier, but it did not have a vision for Punjab
