The arrest of Punjab Congress leader Sukhpal Singh Khaira by the state police comes as a blow to seat sharing efforts within the INDIA alliance and is also expected to damage the image of unity which the leaders of the parties that are part of the bloc have attempted to project in recent months.
Khaira, MLA from Bholath and the chairman of the All India Kisan Congress, was arrested on Thursday by Punjab Police for alleged involvement in smuggling of drugs and money laundering. The development, coming in the midst of efforts within the INDIA alliance to sew tie-ups at the state level for the Lok Sabha polls, is expected to have a major political repercussion.
A war of words between the state units of the Congress and the AAP in Punjab was already on. Punjab Congress leaders have accused the ruling AAP of targeting its leaders by slapping false cases on them. Congress Legislature Party leader Partap Singh Bajwa has claimed that 32 AAP MLAs were in touch with him and they would cross over to the Congress after the Lok Sabha elections.
Majority of the Punjab Congress leaders have opposed an alliance with the AAP for the coming LS elections. They have conveyed their views in this regard to the party high command, pointing out that going in for a seat-sharing arrangement with the AAP would go against the Congress' role as the main opposition party in the state. They have also pointed out that the ruling AAP has gone after the state Congress leaders and that made the idea of having an alliance with the AAP all the more insupportable.
The Punjab Congress has been looking at the LS elections as an opportunity to stage a political comeback and assesses that it has a good chance of winning on most of the 13 parliamentary constituencies on offer in the state.
On the other hand, the AAP, after making some noises initially about getting into a seat-sharing arrangement in the state, is also talking about fighting all the 13 seats on its own.
Another dimension to the development is the bitter history that Khaira has with the AAP. He was leader of opposition, as an AAP MLA, in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha from July 2017 to July 2018. He had quit the AAP in January 2019.
The Congress has described Khaira's arrest as an act of political vendetta. Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge called him in the morning and asked the state unit to fight for Khaira.
The BJP has criticised the arrest of Khaira, saying the AAP government in the state was misusing the police. It also, however, has used the development to talk about divisions in the INDIA alliance.