JALANDHAR; Congress leader and former MLA Jagbir Singh Brar joined the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) here on Monday in the presence of party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Welcoming him into the party fold, Badal announced that Brar would be the SAD candidate from the Jalandhar Cantonment seat in the upcoming state elections.
Badal also appointed him a general secretary of the party.
Brar, who is the chairman of the Punjab Water Resources Management and Development Corporation, was first elected from the Jalandhar Cantonment seat in 2007 on an SAD ticket.
He later joined the People's Party of Punjab floated by Manpreet Singh Badal.
Thereafter, he switched over to the Congress but was defeated by Pargat Singh, who had contested the Jalandhar Cantonment seat on an SAD ticket in the 2012 assembly polls.
Brar had in 2017 unsuccessfully contested from the Nakodar seat.
Pargat Singh, who joined the Congress ahead of the 2017 assembly polls, is the sitting MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment.
Sukhbir Badal said Brar joining the SAD was a major setback for the Congress after Navjot Sidhu was appointed its Punjab unit president.
He added that people were fed up with the misrule of the Congress party as it had not fulfilled a single promise made to them, according to an SAD statement.
The SAD chief said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh took a "false" oath on the 'Gutka Sahib' to "befool" Punjabis on the eve of the 2017 elections and made tall promises, including 'ghar ghar naukri' and complete loan waiver for farmers, besides others.
He added that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal too was trying to "mislead" people with announcements even though he had "failed" to deliver on any of the promises made to the people of the national capital.
He said in Delhi, major services, including the police and others, are under the central government and still the AAP government has "failed" to deliver.
The SAD chief claimed Kejriwal was spending as much as Rs 600 crore on "self-publicity".
Coming down heavily on Navjot Sidhu for indulging in "cheap theatrics", Badal said Punjab needed a serious leadership to uplift the state and not "theatrical tamashas" like that being done by Sidhu as well as AAP leader Bhagwant Mann.
Senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia said Jagbir Brar had always worked for the welfare of the people as well as the development of his area, and his homecoming would benefit the SAD not only in Jalandhar Cantonment but in the entire state.
Majithia said the Congress was a "divided house" in Punjab, with one group being led by Navjot Sidhu and the other by Amarinder Singh.
"With his theatrics, he may be able to do cheap comedy but he cannot mislead people with his false claims," he said.