A day after Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) landslide victory in Punjab, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said people took a great decision.
Speaking to reporters at his home constituency Amritsar East from where he lost the poll to AAP candidate, Sidhu said a new foundation has been laid in the state with AAP’s victory.
“This politics is badlaav (change). I congratulate the people of Punjab for taking this excellent decision (to elect AAP). They have changed the traditional system of Punjab and kept a new foundation. People have brought a change and people are never wrong. I had said yesterday also it’s the voice of God in people. We should accept it with all humility,” he said.
Without naming his detractors, Sidhu said “those who dug holes and tried to suppress him, they fell into hundred times bigger well. “Three-four ministers have lost. It’s the result of their deeds. As you sow, so shall you reap,” the Congress leader said in a reference to the defeats suffered by incumbent CM, Charanjit Singh Channi from his both the Assembly seats, Chamkaur Sahib and Bhadaur and the defeats suffered by former CMs Captain Amarinder Singh, Parkash Singh Badal and Rajinder Kaur Bhattal.
He said AAP has been given absolute majority by the people. “Congress too was given a decisive mandate but made no use of it. A greedy CM (Amarinder) who was hand-in-glove with Badals, I fought with him and made him leave the CM’s chair,” Sidhu said.
When asked about his absence from the Congress’ poll campaign even as the party lost 22 of the 25 seats in his home region Majha, Sidhu said this time it was not his responsibility to go for the poll campaign. “It was the responsibility of the Chief Minister (Channi). After all, a person who is CM candidate is given administrative power by the party. It’s his responsibility to go for the poll campaign. If somebody had asked me to go, I would have done the poll campaign (in other constituencies),” he said.
“The day Channi was announced as the CM candidate, I had told him it’s his responsibility and I am there to help him only. I cooperated with him till the end. But I will not go into if the decision to name Channi as CM was accepted by the people or not,” Sidhu added.