Cong faces heat after Ludhiana bypoll loss: Jakhar, Khaira allege collusion of senior leaders with AAP

Former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu lost to AAP’s Sanjeev Arora by over 10,000 votes.

Alleging that a senior Congress leader had colluded with AAP and “entered a deal with CM Bhagwant Mann” to make Ashu lose, Jakhar in a statement Wednesday said that “the Congress’s defeat was due to some Congress leaders surrendering to the Chief Minister through a deal.”

Jakhar‘s statement came a day after Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring had said that “AAP and BJP had entered a secret understanding to defeat Congress in Ludhiana.”

Hitting back at Warring, Jakhar said: “Fearing their secrets being exposed, Congress leaders are now falsely accusing the BJP. However, the real responsibility for Congress’s defeat lies with those leaders who are now taking the lead in blaming others.”

Jakhar said it is “no secret that CM Mann had mentioned in the Vidhan Sabha about irregularities in the Transport Department and spoken about filing cases against a certain leader.”

He added: “Despite so much time having passed, the AAP government, which claims to follow a zero-tolerance policy on corruption, has taken no action regarding the alleged irregularities. This clearly indicates that either another act of corruption has taken place to suppress this issue, or the responsible leader has surrendered to the Chief Minister by selling out their party’s interests.”

Jakhar said that during the election campaign in Ludhiana, he had already pointed out “that the corruption CM Mann spoke about in the Vidhan Sabha, and for which he talked about filing cases, has seen no action even after three and a half years of the government’s tenure”. “This is a clear indication that a secret deal has been struck between the two sides,” he added.

Jakhar said that on one hand, “Congress leaders have struck a deal with the Chief Minister, while on the other, they have displayed their old habit of harming their own by ruining the career of a prominent leader like Ashu, thereby undermining their own party.”

Contacted, Jakhar said: “Everyone knows whom I am talking about and who was accused of corruption in transport department by Mann.”

Meanwhile, Congress’s Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira also alleged that a senior leader from within Congress colluded with AAP “in exchange of some favor for his industrial houses.”

Khaira’s post was perceived as a veiled attack on Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh who was appointed as incharge of the Ludhiana West bypoll by the Congress high command and extensively campaigned for Ashu.

In a post on X, Khaira wrote: “Yes the @INCIndia should seriously introspect the reasons of defeat including the collusion of some of their top leaders with AAP government particularly those being made incharge of by elections repeatedly despite losses ! Has any such leader taken favour for his industrial house to compromise these elections or helped give his crony as a candidate to Aap etc ?”

Contacted, Rana Gurjeet Singh said that he would not like to comment on Khaira’s post. “I would not like to react to it,” he said.