A day after Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s brother Manohar Singh was denied ticket by the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday accused the Congress of using Mr. Channi — a Dalit — only to woo the votes of the Scheduled Castes community.
The party alleged that the Congress is using Mr. Channi as a “night watchman”.
AAP’s Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha said the Congress has given tickets to family members and relatives of all its big leaders in the first list. “..But they have cut the ticket of Chief Minister Channi’s brother. This proves that the Congress will ‘use and throw’ Channi for the votes of the SC community,” he said here.
“Despite publicly expressing his desire to contest, the Chief Minister’s brother did not get the ticket. This shows that Channi has no say at all in the party. The Congress will use Channi as the Chief Minister for a few days only to get the votes of the SC community.”
History of changing Chief Ministers
Mr. Chadha said the Congress has a history of changing Chief Ministers after trying to gain votes in the name of OBC-SC leaders. “It has pulled something similar in Maharashtra as well. There, it used Sushil Kumar Shinde like Channi. A few days before the election, Shinde was made the Chief Minister to woo the SC voters but they replaced him after the election.”
Mr. Chadha said several Congressmen do not respect Mr. Channi. “Even Channi’s photo is missing in the posters of State party president Navjot Singh Sidhu’s conferences. Sidhu continues to accuse the Channi government of corruption and complicity with the mafia. This clearly means that in the Congress Channi is ineffective and has no say. The motive of the Congress is not to give a community representation in the form of Channi but only to use Channi’s name for the votes of the SC community.”
