Jalandhar: Blaming Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of controlling the Punjab unit from Delhi and not declaring AAP Punjab president cum Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann as the party's chief ministerial candidate, Bathinda Rural MLA Rupinder Kaur Ruby resigned from AAP at 11 pm on November 9 and joined congress on November 10 evening.

Ruby joined the Congress in the presence of chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, besides other party leaders. Ruby’s joining is being seen as a shot in the arm for the Congress ahead of the assembly elections.

Ruby tweeted her resignation at 11 pm on November 9, saying, “Mr Arvind Kejriwal ji convener, AAP & Bhagwant Mann ji. This is hereby to inform you that I am resigning with immediate effect from the membership of AAP. Please accept my resignation. Thanks.”

In her address to the media after joining the Congress, Ruby said, “While AAP claims to be the party of ‘Aam Admi’ but the real agenda of Aam Admi was being pursued by Congress. I am impressed by the performance of congress in the last 50 days.”

She reiterated that the Punjab AAP unit was being controlled by Kejriwal from Delhi. “I kept demanding that Bhagwant Mann should be announced the Chief Ministerial candidate of the party but nobody listened, hence I quit the party and joined the congress.”

The Bathinda MLA was vocal in her support to Mann's candidature and asked the party to avoid committing the same mistake that they committed in 2017 by not announcing a chief ministerial candidate.

Interestingly, before Ruby could announce her next move, Leader of Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha, advocate Harpal Singh Cheema, tweeted in Punjabi that Ruby was going to join the Congress on November 10 morning.

He tweeted, “Rupinder Ruby is our younger sister, wherever she goes, may she always stay happy. This time there was a bleak chance that she would get a ticket from AAP, hence she is joining congress. My appeal to congress is that don’t dupe Ruby and do give her a ticket from Bathinda Rural seat.”

In her reply to Cheema, Ruby tweeted, “Respectable, Cheema ji, You also know where the party is taking Punjab. I cannot watch all this silently. When it was your time to speak, you could not speak. Neither you could raise a voice for the people of Punjab, nor for Bhagwant Mann. As far as the ticket is concerned, you can contest against me.”

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Talking to The Wire, Cheema said, “The allegations levelled by Ruby are baseless. She was likely to be dropped in the upcoming assembly elections, hence she jumped ship.”

However, when asked about the growing disenchantment among the party MLAs over not announcing Mann as the chief ministerial face, Cheema said, “I am in no capacity to comment on this but the party will announce the CM face at the right time. We (AAP) are doing good.”

Sources claimed that apart from Ruby, three to four MLAs were also in the queue to quit AAP and join Congress in the coming days. If more MLAs quit the party, AAP might end up losing the status of main opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.

AAP had won 20 seats in the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections and became the main opposition in the assembly. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) came in third with just 15 MLAs.

Recently, rebel AAP MLA from Jaiton constituency of Faridkot district Baldev Singh Kalyan was disqualified by assembly speaker Rana KP Singh under anti-defection law.

Similarly, Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira from Kapurthala district, Mansa MLA Nazar Singh Manshahia and Maur MLA Jagdev Singh Kamalu from Bathinda district and Bhadaur MLA Pirmal Singh Dhaula from Barnala district left AAP in June. Earlier, Supreme Court advocate H.S. Phoolka, known for his crusade against the 1984 anti-Sikh violence, who contested from Dakha assembly constituency of Ludhiana district, had also quit AAP in 2019.

Reacting to the development, AAP leaders said Ruby was not performing well in her constituency and was unlikely to get a ticket this time, hence her decision to resign. They also claimed that this would not affect the party – but many party workers claimed that it is a big setback.

An AAP worker, who has been with the party since its rise in 2019 in Punjab, said on the condition of anonymity, “Within the next 40-plus days, the model code of conduct would be enforced in Punjab. Elections are around the corner and AAP’s sitting MLAs are quitting the party and joining Congress. What does this indicate? The irony is that people are ready to vote for AAP but the party is taking everything for granted. Nearly five sitting AAP MLAs have left the party in the past few months and this should really worry the party but that’s not the case at all. I have even stopped attending the party meetings.”

Chandigarh-based former media coordinator for AAP in Punjab and senior journalist Manpreet Randhawa said, “Since the beginning, AAP Punjab leaders have been demanding full freedom to run the party in Punjab but Kejriwal never responded. This was the major demand in 2017 and it is the same in 2021 too. The fact is that Kejriwal is a highly insecure person. What stopped him all these years (2017 to 2022) from announcing a chief ministerial candidate? If AAP can announce its chief ministerial candidates in poll-bound states of Goa and Uttarakhand, then why not Punjab? Usually, it is the governments that fall but here opposition AAP is falling.”

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Randhawa said that Kejriwal is best known for ignoring people, including those who stood by him and helped form the party. “Whether it was Navjot Singh Sidhu, whom he refused audience or senior journalist Kanwar Sandhu, who went across Punjab and held meetings with stakeholders to form the election manifesto of AAP, Kejriwal left everybody high and dry. People in Punjab have been waiting for a CM face but AAP is looking elsewhere. Last time in 2017, the best of the academicians, government officials, retired army officers, writers and social workers had joined AAP, this time they have not attracted any such personality. From renowned Punjabi comedian-actor Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi to former Vice Chancellor of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana Dr Kirpal Singh Aukakh, everybody left AAP realising that the party was hollow from within.”

He also claimed that during 2017 assembly elections, Kejriwal’s agenda was to become the chief minister of Punjab and then project ‘Punjab Model’ in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections and gain votes. “Basically, Kejriwal wanted to command Punjab. But amidst all this, he forgot that his party workers and the people, to whom he was selling his Delhi model, got disheartened. His agenda was to project himself as a national politician. That’s why these days, he is seen showing off his religious credentials and playing the religion card to woo the majority,” Randhawa added.

Ruby had become the youngest AAP MLA at the age of 29. A law graduate and PhD, Ruby taught at Bathinda Law College as assistant professor before joining AAP in 2013. She defeated the SAD candidate by a margin of 10,000 votes.

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