Congress trying to bring former CM Charanjit Singh Channi on board for campaigning in Jalandhar

JALANDHAR: The Congress party is now trying to bring former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi on board for campaigning in Jalandhar parliamentary bypoll, while also making attempts to call a truce among leaders making different voices.
Meanwhile, the party leaders are also anxiously watching the next moves of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who after meeting Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in Delhi on Thursday, called on party president Mallikarjun Kharge and general secretary K C Venugopal.
During his brief stint as the chief minister, Channi managed to earn a good support base in Ravidassia/Adi-dharmi community, which has a strong presence at the seat, and Channi factor worked at some seats in the Doaba region and contributed to the Congress party’s win in five out of nine assembly segments of the Jalandhar constituency. Channi was reportedly also keen on contesting from the seat and had made a couple of rounds of the Jalandhar constituency when the candidate was yet to be finalised, but had confined himself to a few select meetings.
Well-placed sources in the party revealed that efforts were on to persuade him to campaign in the constituency.
It is also learnt that leaders who have been speaking in different voices are being told to watch their words carefully in the run up to the Jalandhar bypoll.
Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu on Thursday went on to say that both Channi and Sidhu had damaged the party along with Captain Amarinder Singh, and they would not be given any responsibility for the same reason. Incidentally when Bittu was making these remarks against Sidhu, the latter was calling on the Gandhi siblings in Delhi.
The Congress has lost the seat only four times since 1977, due to factionalism.
SAD-BSP meeting today
A meeting of the SAD-BSP coordination committee would be held at the BSP office in Kanshi Ram Bhawan at Jalandhar on Saturday to finalise the alliance candidate.