Punjab polls: Sunil Jakhar slams Channi as liability, says 'his greed' let to Congress defeat

Congress leader Sunil Jakhar on Monday slammed party leadership for choosing Charanjit Singh Channi as the chief ministerial candidate for Punjab Assembly polls, labelling him as a "liability" for the party and claiming that his greed led to the disastrous defeat.

Jakhar's remarks come a day after  Congress Working Committee meet in Delhi to discuss the poll debacle of the grand old party in all five Assembly states.

In the Punjab Assembly polls, Channi lost from both constituencies from where he had contested, while Aam Aadmi Party made history by winning 92 seats, which is the single highest number of seats won by any party since 1966 in Punjab.

Jakhar, in his tweet, also took a dig at Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni, who had proposed the name of Channi as the chief minister of Punjab after Captain Amarinder Singh resigned.

Jakhar also tweeted a picture of Channi with a headline: “ED seizes Rs 10 crore from Channi’s nephew; CM cries foul".

Later, speaking to ANI, Jakhar said his tweet was “not to accuse anyone of anything”.

“Disappointing to see the kind of sycophancy played out in CWC yesterday. Report suggests certain leaders who’ve been Rajya Sabha MPs for 30 years, claim to be Punjab’s voice in CWC are hoodwinking party high command,” he told ANI.

He added: “This recommendation for CM’s post was done by these very people. Instead of acknowledging it, they’re trying to put it on Rahul Gandhi. People of Punjab wanted change, but the person who was projected was caught with his hand in the til. Remedy was worse than disease,” reported News18.

Jakhar, who also had chief ministerial ambitions, has been at loggerheads with the senior party members for being ignored, despite having the support of a maximum number of MLAs.

On Sunday, former Punjab minister and senior party leader Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the Congress leadership scripted its own defeat by giving power to turncoats and opportunists who were alien to the Congress, its history and culture.

“The decline of the party’s prospects started the day Sunil Jakhar, a dyed-in-wool Congressman, was replaced by an outsider Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had joined the Congress just four years ago,” he said.

Asserting that the Congress “committed one blunder after another”, Balbir Sidhu said removing Amarinder Singh as the chief minister proved to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back which eventually led to the “complete collapse” of the party and the government.

He said the way the party arbitrarily denied tickets to senior and veteran leaders like Amrik Singh Dhillon, Jagmohan Singh Kang, Ajaib Singh Bhatti and Kewal Singh Dhillon was yet another fatal mistake by the Congress leadership.

Balbir Sidhu also said the way the Punjab Congress chief and the chief minister indulged in open war of words, left the field wide open for the opposition. "The language used by Navjot Sidhu and Channi during the campaign antagonised a large section of the electorate,” he added. Rahul Gandhi had declared Channi as Congress' chief ministerial candidate on February 6, the same day Jakhar quit active electoral politics.

Balbir Sidhu said those responsible for the debacle must be made accountable, lest the Congress got “destroyed beyond redemption”.

In the  CWC meet, it was status quo once again with Sonia Gandhi, the interim president, suggesting that she and her children, Rahul and Priyanka, were ready to step aside, taking responsibility for the defeat of Congress in all five states, and the leaders, in turn, urging her to continue and reaffirming their faith in her leadership.

With inputs from agencies

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