'What BJP did in Maharashtra they are doing in Punjab!'

'One needs to understand what kind of means the BJP use to bring other party leaders in their party.'

'They are unscrupulous politicians and money plays an important role.'

After Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's arrest, Congress leaders shared the stage with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi to showcase the INDIA (India National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc's solidarity with it.

However, in Punjab, the same INDIA grouping has withered away because the Congress, the principal Opposition party in the state, has refused to have an alliance with AAP which is in power.

Last week, the Congress got a jolt when its Lok Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Ravneet Singh Bittu, quit the party to join the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Three former Congress leaders -- Captain Amarinder Singh, Sunil Jakhar and Bittu -- are now in the Punjab BJP.

Will this trouble the Congress which won eight out of Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 in the face of the Modi wave in North India?

Can the Congress maintain the same tally or do better in the 2024 general election?

"In the latest survey that we got, the Congress has 32 percent of votes in the state. AAP is at 25 percent and the BJP is at 20 percent. Akali Dal is 17 percent," Pratap Singh Bajwa, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab assembly, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com. The first of a two-part interview:

How do you assess the Congress chances in Punjab?

We are having a four-cornered contest in Punjab: The Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP.

I feel we are going to do extremely well, taking into account an analysis of the last three elections.

There is a 65 percent vote in Punjab that is secular and nationalist. We are well placed.

What do you mean by the secular nationalist vote in Punjab?

In the 2022 Punjab assembly elections we got 23 percent votes and AAP got 42 percent votes. The total comes to 65 percent of votes, and this I call the secular nationalist votes of Punjab.

In the state assembly elections of 2017, when Captain Amarinder Singh won, we had 41 percent votes and AAP had 22 percent votes. This adds up to 63 percent of secular nationalist votes.

In the 2019 general elections the Congress had 40 percent of votes.

So what I am saying is that the BJP has only a certain section of votes in their favour (in the cities).

The Akali Dal is an agrarian party which has a section of Punjab rural voters.

On the contrary, the Congress gets its votes from all sections of society. We get Sikh, Dalit, backward class and Hindu votes, which is one of the mainstays of the Congress party.

Traditionally, in Punjab, the Congress is seen as a protector of minorities as the Hindus are minorities and the Sikhs are in a majority.

So you are writing off AAP completely?

I am not writing off AAP.

I am saying in the latest survey that we got, the Congress has 32 percent of votes in the state. AAP is at 25 percent and the BJP is at 20 percent. Akali Dal is 17 percent.

If the Congress is leading as per the survey you mentioned, why are MPs like Ravneet Singh Bittu quitting? Don't you feel party workers' morale gets affected by leaders moving to the BJP?

There is a lot of anti-incumbency for Bittu from Ludhiana. He was never in touch with his electorate. He did nothing for his constituency.

There are two types of politicians. Ones who are wedded to the ideology of the party, and others who are wedded to the goods of office.

Bittu, because of his late grandfather (chief minister Beant Singh who was assassinated by terrorists) was provided with Z plus security by the central government. He was given good paraphernalia by the government.

I feel there was arm-twisting adopted by the BJP for Bittu as they must have told him to join them or all his facilities by the central government will be withdrawn.

He has been enjoying those facilities for the last eight to 10 years.

You must remember that my father (Satnam Singh Bajwa) was assassinated by terrorists in 1987 with five other people. I was also a target of terrorism in 1990 and escaped death.

I too got eight former ministers and MLAs from the BJP and three from Akalis to the Congress party in Punjab.

But the news highlight is that Congress leaders are leaving in hordes and joining the BJP in Punjab.

You must understand that I was given security by the central government. And when I got those BJP leaders into the Congress party my security was demoted from Z to Y plus. You just see how the BJP central government is behaving with Opposition leaders like me.

Recently Punjab farmers were badly injured by the Haryana police in firing. One boy died and 300 of them were badly injured on the Punjab-Haryana borders. I was doing a press conference on February 29 on the atrocities committed by central forces on the farmers of Punjab. That very day the whole of my security apparatus was withdrawn by the central government. And I am the Leader of the Opposition.

I believe Bittu and others must have been told that if you want to avail security facilities, come to the BJP or your security will be withdrawn.

What keeps you in the Congress, then?

The Congress ideology keeps me in the party.

My father laid down his life for the nation and I am in the Congress from 1978.

When (terrorist) Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was at his peak I was Punjab Youth Congress president, taking him on.

I have worked with four chief ministers of Punjab as a cabinet minister and in various other ranks. I was Pradesh Congress president from 2013 to 2016. I defeated Vinod Khanna from the Gurdaspur parliamentary seat in 2009. Subsequently, I was also a member of the Rajya Sabha from 2016-2022.

Why is there so much infighting within the Congress in Punjab?

There are minor differences among Congress leaders. The rest is propaganda against the Congress party on national television.

There are no major differences among the senior ranks of the Congress in Punjab.

Yesterday (April 3) we got Dr Dharamvir Gandhi in the Congress party from AAP. He was one of the senior-most ideologues of AAP. He was AAP leader in the Lok Sabha in 2014.

So, the point is, lots of political leaders from different parties are joining the Congress and lots of them are leaving too.

You have to understand the BJP modus operandi on those who are leaving the Opposition ranks.

You know what they did to the Shiv Sena and NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) in Maharashtra.

One needs to understand what kind of means the BJP used to get their job done and bring other party leaders in their party or form an alliance with those parties.

They are unscrupulous politicians and money plays an important role.

What the BJP did in Maharashtra they are doing in Punjab!

The BJP knows that a majority of Sikh farmers are not going to vote for them because of farm protests.

The BJP has presence only in the cities of Punjab. They have no presence in rural Punjab and 70 percent of Punjab is rural.

Sushil Kumar Rinku was an MP from Jalandhar and an AAP leader. He quit the party and soon puts his photo with 11 commandos protecting him on his Facebook profile. He was displaying those commando photos as if they are some Nizam jewels.

The problem with the BJP in Punjab is that they are not getting good candidates to contest elections.

The same thing is happening with its alliance partner, the Shiv Sena (Shinde), where they are not getting good candidates so they are getting actor Govinda into their party.

• Part 2 of the Interview: 'People Of Punjab Know BJP's Tricks'