Charanjit Channi, Navjot Sidhu behind defeat: Ex-minister Balbir Sidhu

Chandigarh, March 13

As pressure mounts on former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu over the poll debacle, senior Congress leader and former minister Balbir Singh Sidhu on Sunday termed the two as “turncoats and opportunist” who scripted party’s humiliating defeat. Terming them parachute leaders, Balbir said the two were alien to the Congress, its history and culture.

“The decline of the party’s prospects started the day when Sunil Jakhar, a dyed in the wool Congress man, was replaced by an outsider, Navjot Singh Sidhu, who had joined party just four years ago. The party committed one blunder after another. Removing Capt Amarinder Singh as the Chief Minister proved to be the last straw, which eventually led to complete collapse of the party and the government,” he said.

The former minister said the third mistake was refusing to appoint Jakhar as the Chief Minister, despite the support of an overwhelming majority of the party MLAs just because he was a Hindu, despite Congress having a pure secular character and culture. “If the Congress had believed in politics of religion, then Giani Zail Singh wouldn’t be the President, Dr Manmohan Singh wouldn’t be the Prime Minister and Buta Singh wouldn’t be the Home Minister,” he pointed out.

Balbir said the party arbitrarily denying ticket to senior and veteran leaders such as Amrik Singh Dhillon, Jahmohan Singh Kang, Ajaib Singh Bhatti and Kewal Singh Dhillon was yet another fatal mistake. “It was strange and surprising that the party looked like it was in a race with itself in repeating one blunder after another to cause its own doom,” he said. The three-time former MLA from Mohali pointed out just before the appointment of Sidhu as the PCC president, everyone was of the unanimous view that the Congress would repeat itself in 2022.

“But the countdown for doom started the day Sidhu took over as PCC chief,” he said, adding the party made no efforts to rein him in. Besides, the language used by Sidhu and Channi antagonised a large section of the electorate, he said. —