Manpreet to take on Harsimrat Badal

During the forthcoming parliamentary polls, Punjab will see a clash of the Badals. Family rebel, People's Party of Punjab president Manpreet Badal, has tied up with the Congress to take on Harsimrat Badal, daughter-in-law of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, in Bathinda.

Manpreet, whose PPP is part of the Sanjha Morcha, bargained hard forcing the Congress to leave Faridkot seat for ally Communist Party of India's candidate Kashmir Singh.

The pre-poll pact comes within days of CPI (M) general secretary Parkash Karat announcing the PPP as one of the 11 parties that had come together to form the third front against the Congress and the BJP in New Delhi. But Manpreet, who was in the UK on the day of this announcement, had fuelled speculations by not sending any representative to the third front meeting. Back from his UK visit, Manpreet and PPP leader Gurpreet Bhatti held parleys with Congress leaders -- Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa and general secretary in-charge of Punjab, Shakeel Ahmed - in New Delhi and the poll deal was sealed on late Thursday evening.

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