With few days to go for the Punjab assembly elections, the Congress received a jolt in Amritsar when sitting Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu quit and joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to uphold what he claimed his ‘self-dignity’. After joining the party Rintu said he had taken the decision as he felt ignored by the party. “When you are ignored in spite of working for the party with dedication, taking another course is the best option,” he told the media.
Rintu holds clout in the Amritsar North Assembly segment, from where the AAP has fielded former Inspector General of Police Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh.
After unsuccessfully contesting the Assembly elections in 2012, Rintu was denied a ticket five years later. However, the party made him the Amritsar Mayor in 2018. Sources revealed that Rintu’s resignation was fallout of the upset local leadership over PCC Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu allegedly ignoring them as a run up to the polls.
Rintu, was a close ally of former CM Capt Amarinder Singh and sources close to the leader claimed he was “feeling suffocated” in the present party set-up under PCC president.
In 2018, then Local Bodies Minister Sidhu and 17 other Congress councillors of Amritsar (East) close to him had boycotted the oath-taking ceremony of Rintu.
Sidhu was also reportedly upset for not being taken into confidence while picking the mayoral candidates in Amritsar, Patiala and Jalandhar where the party had won local corporation elections in 2017.
Sidhu is contesting from the Amritsar East constituency and is pitted against senior Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia who decided to give up his stronghold Majitha to take the PCC chief head on. The PCC Chief is also reportedly being cold shouldered by the local leadership in the constituency.
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