Congress MP's wife joins AAP in Punjab; to contest

On a day when Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh met party legislators to control any rebellion in the party ranks, the ruling party was left embarrassed on Tuesday when the wife of a Congress Rajya Sabha member joined the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was named a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections.

Harbans Kaur, a former Congress MLA (2002-07) and wife of Congress Rajya Sabha member Shamsher Singh Dullo, joined the AAP in Jalandhar in the presence of senior AAP leader and legislator Aman Arora.

Kaur was declared the AAP candidate for the Fatehgarh Sahib (reserved) Lok Sabha seat by AAP following her joining. The AAP withdrew the name of its already announced candidate for the seat, Balwinder Singh, in favour of Kaur.

Dullo, who was himself President of the Punjab Congress earlier, has been critical of Amarinder Singh in recent years. He is a Dalit leader.

Though the Congress was politically embarrassed by the development, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said that Kaur's joining the AAP will not have any impact on the Congress.

Kaur had lost the election in the 2007 Assembly polls.IANS