'Congress scripted its own defeat in Punjab': Ex-Minister tears into Channi; backs Jakhar

In a scathing indictment of Congress on Sunday, former Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu contended that the Sonia Gandhi-led party scripted its own defeat in Punjab. Serving as the Health Minister in the Amarinder Singh-led Cabinet before he was dropped when Charanjit Singh Channi took over as the CM, Sidhu was defeated by AAP's Kulwant Singh in S.A.S Nagar constituency by a margin of over 34,000 votes. In a statement, he came down heavily on the party's decision to give power to turncoats and opportunists.

For instance, he asserted that Congress' decline started the day Navjot Singh Sidhu was appointed as the Punjab Congress president in place of Sunil Jakhar. According to him, the unceremonious ouster of Amarinder Singh eventually culminated in the "complete collapse" of the party as well as the state government. Sidhu also opined that the party's other mistake was to not appoint Jakhar as the CM just because he was a Hindu. The latter had publicly claimed that he was ignored for the top post despite having the support of maximum MLAs.

Highlighting Channi's stint with Shiromani Akali Dal and the People's Party of Punjab, the ex-Punjab Health Minister argued that Congress shouldn't have made a "rank outsider" like him the CM. Moreover, he lamented that the party leadership had denied tickets to senior leaders such as Amrik Singh Dhillon, Jagmohan Singh Kang, Ajaib Singh Bhatti and Kewal Singh Dhillon. He also pointed out that people were fed up with the war of words between Navjot Sidhu and Channi. 

AAP sweeps Punjab election

Notwithstanding all odds, Aam Aadmi Party scripted history by winning a whopping 92 seats in the 2022 Punjab elections, which is the single highest number of seats won by any party since the reorganization of the state in 1966. This was also a massive jump from its 2017 tally of 20 seats. Moreover, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party garnered 42.01% of the vote share as against Congress, which got 22.98% of the total votes. In the end, Congress managed to bag only 18 seats, which was 49 seats less than its 2017 tally.

This was the lowest ever tally for the Sonia Gandhi-led party post the 1997 election. Its vote share too fell from 38.64% in the previous Assembly polls to about 23% this time. Most importantly, caretaker Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi lost from both seats which he contested in the Assembly election. Navjot Singh Sidhu also faced embarrassment as he lost to AAP's Jeevan Jyot Kaur in Amritsar East by 6,750 votes. Barring Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Pargat Singh, Tript Bajwa, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Rana Gurjeet Singh, all other 12 Ministers lost from their respective seats.

(With PTI inputs)