AICC Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Choudhary on Tuesday called a meeting of candidates to introspect on the party’s defeat after the Congress’s humiliating defeat in the Punjab Assembly elections. Before the start of the meeting, Choudhary told reporters that he would personally meet the party candidates to find out the reasons for the defeat.
Outgoing Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and party’s state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu also reached the Punjab Congress office. However, both refused to talk to the media. Gurpreet Singh, who lost from Bassi Pathana assembly seat, blamed Channi for the party’s crushing defeat in the elections.
He said if Congress had declared Sidhu as the party’s chief ministerial face, it would have won at least 50 seats. He said, ‘CM Channi is the only reason for the party’s defeat. People did not like Channi as the CM face at all. Gurpreet Singh said that if (Navjot) Sidhu was declared CM, we would have won at least 50 seats.
When it was pointed out that Sidhu himself had lost from the Amritsar East seat, Gurpreet Singh again blamed Channi. “If Charanjit Channi was the CM face, what could Sidhu do?”
The leader of Punjab said that how can the people of Punjab listen to Channi when his brother is not. Channi’s brother Manohar Singh contested against Gurpreet Singh as an independent from Bassi Pathana seat.
He took a dig at Channi’s Bhangra performance at an event, saying, “Is it the chief minister’s job to dance or milk the goat. Instead, Channi should have focused on improving the health and education sectors and creating employment.” Gurpreet Singh said.
Responding to a question, Gurpreet Singh said that since a huge amount of money was seized from Channi’s nephew after the Enforcement Directorate raids, he should not have been declared the chief ministerial face by the party high command. The former Congress MLA also alleged that Channi was richer than former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who lost from Ludhiana West, said, “The reasons why we lost the election will soon be out in the open. I don’t think the party was weak or we lost because of the leadership. An obligation to him whose “greed pulled the party down”.
Without naming her, Jakhar had also hit out at senior party leader Ambika Soni for trying to project Channi as an asset. On Sunday, former Punjab minister and senior Congress leader Balbir Singh Sidhu, who lost from Mohali, had said that the Congress leadership wrote its own defeat by giving power to turncoats and opportunists who were alienated from the Congress, its history and its culture.
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