Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 16

Aiming to further back an already-troubled Punjab Congress into a corner, the BJP on Friday asked why there cannot be a ‘Majhbi’ Sikh from a rural background as chief minister of Punjab.

Amid row over Sidhu's appointment, Manish Tewari tweets a reminder: ‘Punjab is secular’

“Let’s see who will give Punjab CM from Schedule Caste community,” BJP spokesperson RP Singh said on Friday, reacting to Congress leader Manish Tiwari’s post on demographic details of Punjab’s dominant communities, urging his party’s top brass to keep the non-Jat Sikh class in mind when effecting a change in an election year.

Amid the very obvious trouble in the Punjab Congress, party’s Anandpur Saheb Manish Tewari MP said: “Punjab is both progressive and secular”. However, Singh countered him saying that in that case perhaps it was time for a Dalit CM in the state.   

Notably, Tewari’s reminder to Congress leaders to keep the non-Jat Sikh class in mind comes amid the very obvious tug-of-war between two Jat leaders, Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu. According to Tiwari there are 31.94 percent Dalits, both Hindus, and Sikh, in Punjab. BJP leaders however say that along with the other backward classes in both the communities form a formidable contrast to Jat Sikhs and upper-caste Hindus/Sikhs in the State.