Open to ‘ghar wapasi’, Jagmeet Brar meets Congress gen secy

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 21

Nearly five months after resigning from the Congress which had suspended him for anti-party activities, former MP from Punjab Jagmeet Brar is showing an inclination to return. The first sign of Brar’s “ghar wapasi” surfaced this evening when the former Congress Working Committee member met party general secretary in charge of Punjab Shakeel Ahmad for two hours and discussed the issue of his return to Congress fold.

Brar was suspended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on August 14, 2014, after he suggested that she and her son, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, should take a break from party affairs and let someone else lead the outfit. Consequently on January 5, Brar along with his 25 supporters resigned from the Congress amid speculation that they might join the BJP. The band of rebels, however, kept all options open.

Shakeel Ahmad, when contacted by The Tribune, admitted to meeting Brar. “We did discuss the matter (of his return). It’s an initial discussion. Nothing is final. But one thing is certain. The Congress has a liking for Jagmeet Brar and Brar has a liking for the Congress. We are talking,” Ahmad said, not ruling out Brar’s return in near future.

Brar, however, said he would take the call on his return to the Congress after meeting Sonia and Rahul. “I have met AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmad and told him that I would have to meet both Sonia and Rahul along with my 25 supporters before deciding to join the Congress. I also told him that the party was losing Dalit base in the state and that Rahul’s recent visit to the family of a deceased farmer had sent good signals in the state,” Brar said he was attempting to build with Rahul the bridges he burnt last August. Facing a tough election in Punjab, where it is a divided house, the Congress itself appears inclined to take Brar back for his influence in Faridkot from where he was MP formerly.

The Congress had suspended him upon recommendations of the disciplinary committee headed by senior leader AK Antony. The suspension order of Brar and of former CWC member Birender Singh (who later joined the BJP) said: “Birender Singh and Jagmeet Brar are deliberately acting in a manner to lower the prestige of the party.” But the fact that the Congress had only suspended Brar and not expelled him indicated that it was keeping the doors for his return open. The possibility of Brar’s return has surfaced at a time when the issue of Punjab Congress leadership has been exercising the minds of Congress high command.