Ghubaya should leave SAD if he feels insulted: Harsimrat

MANSA : In what could further strain Ferozepur MP Sher Singh Ghubaya’s association with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), Union food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Friday asked the senior leader to quit the party if he felt humiliated.

Ghubaya, who had vacated his Jalalabad seat to ensure Sukhbir Singh Badal’s maiden entry into the state assembly in 2009, has been at loggerheads with the Badals. His son and brother had joined the Congress on Wednesday.

“Ghubaya was a lowly ‘munim’ at a brick kiln before SAD nurtured and sent him to Lok Sabha twice. But his greed knows no bounds and he wanted an assembly ticket for his son. If he feels so humiliated in the party, he should follow his son and join the Congress,” Harsimrat told mediapersons on the sidelines of a Nanhi Chaan scheme programme at Gurne Kalan village in Mansa.

Trying to woo the Rai-Sikh community, to which Ghubaya belongs, Harsimrat said the Gubaya family is not the only one responsible for the party’s victory, but it is the entire community that supported the party in the elections.

Ghubaya, who was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014, has not participated in a single ‘sangat darshan’ presided over by SAD president and deputy CM Sukhbir Badal. Even though Sukhbir has not openly criticised Ghubaya’s “revolt”, chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had talked about “turncoats” being taught a lesson by the electorate, on being asked about the Ferozepur MP during a ‘sangat darshan’ at Kartarpur on Thursday.

Ghubaya’s departure is expected to have an impact on the outcome of the Fazilka assembly segment — from where his son Davinder, an IIT-Roorkee graduate, is likely to be fielded by the Congress — and adjoining Rai Sikh-dominating Jalalabad besides Guruharsahai and Ferozepur rural and urban segments.