Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha on Monday accused the Congress of using Chief Minister Channi to woo scheduled caste (SC) community votes.

Addressing a Press conference, Chadha said in the first list of candidates Congress has given tickets to family members and relatives of all its big leaders in Punjab but cut the ticket of Chief Minister Channi’s brother. This proves that the Congress applied ‘use and throw’ at Channi for the votes of the SC community, he said.

Referring to the families of Congress leaders who got tickets, Chadha said that the Congress has fielded Amar Singh’s (Member of Parliament from Fatehgarh Sahib) son from Raikot, Avtar Henry’s son from Jalandhar, Brahm Mohindra’s son from Patiala Rural and Sunil Jakhar’s nephew has been given a ticket.

But despite publicly expressing his desire to contest, Channi’s brother did not get the Congress ticket for Punjab Assembly elections.

This shows that Channi has no say at all in the Congress party. The Congress used Channi as the Chief Minister for a few days only to get the votes of the SC community, the AAP leader said.

Chadha said Congress has a history of changing the chief minister after taking votes in the name of other backward class (OBC) and SC leaders. He said Congress had pulled something similar in Maharashtra as well.

“There (Maharashtra) Congress had used Sushilkumar Shinde like Channi. A few days before the election, to woo the SC voters, Shinde was made the chief minister of the state but after the election, they replaced him. Like Maharashtra, Congress is now using Channi as a ‘night watchman’ in Punjab,” the AAP leader said.

Chadha said Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and many other Congressmen do not respect Chief Minister Channi. Even Channi’s photo is missing in the posters of Sidhu’s conferences. Sidhu continues to accuse the Channi government of corruption and complicity with the mafia. This clearly means, in Congress Channi is ineffective and has no say. The motive of Congress was not to give a community representation in the form of Channi but only to use Channi’s name for the votes of SC community.