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A war of words erupted between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Punjab over the candidature of Sunny Deol from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency on Wednesday.
While sitting Congress MP Sunil Jakhar questioned the actor’s knowledge about the constituency, Punjab BJP chief Shwait Malik dared the ruling Amarinder Singh government to show its report card.
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Accusing Deol of having “no understating” of issues in Punjab, Jakhar, who is also the state Congress president asked his opponent to share his vision for the Gurdaspur seat, telling him that “politics is a serious business and not a time pass activity”.
The BJP has fielded Deol, a Jat Sikh, from Gurdaspur and he will be locking horns with Jakhar, Aam Aadmi Party’s Peter Masih and Punjab Democratic Alliance’s Lal Chand.
“Sunny Deol is unaware of the issues in Punjab and Gurdaspur. People are fast developing a perception about him that he is limited to cinema. Whenever he meets people and holds interaction with them, one will come to know about real Sunny Deol,” said Jakhar.
“He (Deol) should share his vision for Gurdaspur constituency. What will be his agenda for the people here? Voters would also like to know what has been his contribution to the society other than being in movies,” he added.
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Taking a dig at Deol’s short speech in BJP’s rally in Gurdaspur on Monday, Jakhar said, “He did not give any speech and just uttered dialogues from his movies. I think he has failed to understand the people of Gurdaspur.”
“Voters here want to know his viewpoints on this constituency. I think he has been misguided. He just read a script (on Monday). If he says he does not know much about politics then he should have talked about Punjabiyat or touched upon Punjab’s issues,” he added.
“Politics is not a time pass activity. This is a serious business which involves serving the people,” said Jakhar further.
The MP invited the actor, who has won the national award for movies like ‘Ghayal’ and ‘Damini’, for a debate on national and state issues.
In his first political speech on Monday after taking the political plunge, Deol had called himself a “patriot” who did not know much about politics.
Deol had also reminded voters of the patriotic character he played in the film ‘Gadar’ and referred to his ‘dhai kilo ka haath’ from the 1993 blockbuster ‘Damini’.
Coming out in support of the actor, Malik slammed the Gurdaspur MP and accused the Congress-led government in the state of cheating people with “false” poll promises.
The Rajya Sabha MP also claimed that Jakhar was “scared” of Deol because of his immense popularity among people of Punjab.
Also Read | BJP ticket to Sunny Deol unites factions in Punjab
“I challenge him (Jakhar) to come out with the report card of the Amarinder Singh government in the state. I dare him to reveal how many roads have been built, how many jobs have been created,” asked Malik.
“You (Jakhar) are a sitting MP but what is your contribution towards Gurdaspur,” asked Malik, accusing Jakhar of indulging in “negative politics” due to fear of defeat.
It is the second time that the BJP is playing the “celebrity card” by fielding an actor from the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat.
The saffron party had nominated Vinod Khanna in 1998 and he had managed to unseat veteran Congress leader and five-time MP Sukhbuns Kaur Bhinder. Khanna represented the seat four times in 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2014.
Currently, the Gurdaspur constituency is represented by Congress MP Sunil Jakhar who won the seat in the 2017 bypoll, which was necessitated after Khanna’s demise in April 2017.
Jakhar had defeated BJP candidate Swaran Salaria by a margin of 1,93,219 votes.
Punjab will vote on May 19 in the last phase of the ongoing general elections.
