Congress leader Rahul GandhiPunjab Congress leaders reacted sharply to both ex-PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar joining the BJP and Supreme Court awarding one-year rigorous imprisonment to another former PPCC chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu, in a road rage case. Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak and former deputy chief minister and ex-jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa told The Indian Express, “On February 14, when Rahul Gandhi visited Gurdaspur, I told him that Navjot Sidhu and Sunil Jakhar be expelled from the party for their asnti-party activities. Unfortunately, no action was taken and Congress ended up being left nowhere in the state.”
“It is unfortunate that Congress did not take any action,” said Randhawa who claimed to have flagged the issue at 5 pm on February 14, days ahead of February 20 elections. The former jails ministers, when asked about the one-year sentence awarded to Sidhu in the 1988 road rage case, said, “It is no longer tough to serve a jail term. We have effected a number of initiatives in jails to make these reformatory in true sense of the word.” Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring wrote in a twitter post, “Not expected. @suniljakhar may have formally joined the @BJPIndia today, he had started working for the party long before, playing blatantly Hindutva politics, damaging the party in every way. There was reason for him to rake up ‘Hindu’ card and the reason was revealed today.”
Punjab Youth Congress chief Brinder Singh Dhillon tweeted, “The time … the only reason, @INCIndia is in its toughest time and leaders who were closest and enjoyed top most positions leave at this point of time, shows the true nature of these leaders. When the time to fight and stand for the party came, weak ran for safer passages.”
PLC chief and former CM Captain Amarinder Singh welcomed Jakhar’s entry in the BJP saying, “Right man in the right party.” Amarinder said, “More leaders were likely to desert the sinking ship in the coming days” and that “the exodus from the Congress will continue and the party is headed for an imminent doom”.
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