Days after the Congress’ disciplinary panel recommended his suspension from the party for two years and removed him from all posts, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Saturday announced his decision to quit the party.
Announcing this decision on Facebook by going ‘live’, an emotional Jakhar said,”Goodbye and Goodluck Congress”. This was after scathing criticism of Congress colleagues who, he alleged, were misguiding the party high command. He, however, did not give any indication of joining other political party.
Jakhar’s decision to quit came at a time when the Congress leadership is holding a ‘Chintan Shivir’ in Udaipur (Rajasthan) in an attempt to put its house in order to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Jakhar targeted senior Congress leader Ambika Soni for misleading the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on not only Punjab affairs, but also on other states. As majority of Congress legislators had reportedly supported Jakhar’s candidature as the CM after Amarinder’s removal, Soni had told the leadership that only a Sikh should be chosen for the job, thus scuttling Jakhar’s chances of being picked as CM.
Flagging Soni’s statement on the “repercussions of having a Hindu chief minister in Punjab”, he said the end result was for a disastrous show by the party in the February-March assembly polls.
Jakhar had also been critical of the party leadership for picking Charanjit Singh Channi as CM candidate for the Punjab Assembly elections. He said the party drifted from its ideology and played the caste card projecting Channi as CM in a bid to get votes of the scheduled caste community but failed as Punjabis didn’t vote on the lines of caste or religion.
Jakhar said he was heartbroken over the show cause notice issued to him by the Congress disciplinary action committee for “not toeing the party line” even as three generations of his family had served the Congress for 50 years.
He said while he was angry with the party, but at the same time feels sorry for it. The three-time legislator and one-time Member of Parliament alleging the three-day Chintan Shivir or brainstorming session of the party currently underway in Udaipur in Rajasthan was a “farce”.
In what he described as a parting gift to Congress, Jakhar advised the Gandhis to know the difference between “friends and foes” and also between assets and liability.