Not allowed to carry mobile, Jakhar leaves CMO in a huff
Was to meet Captain over party MLAs’ grievance regarding police postings, may also skip today’s loan waiver function in Sangrur
CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president and Gurdaspur MP Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday left the office of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in a huff after he was reportedly asked by the security staff to leave his mobile phone outside, bringing to the fore the simmering discontent in the party.
The development came a day before the state government is holding a function to distribute loan waiver certificates in Sangrur district.
Jakhar was to meet the CM at 5pm to convey resentment among some party MLAs over the recent police transfers as they felt cops who were supposedly close to the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have been given plum postings.
The MLAs also felt that the cops, including Bathinda range inspector general of police (IGP) MS Chhinna, who had earned the ire of the Akali Dal have been sidelined.
Jakhar waited at the office of chief minister’s chief principal secretary Suresh Kumar for some time before leaving as a delegation of Dalit legislators led by Raj Kumar Verka and ministers Aruna Chaudhary and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot reached there for a meeting with Amarinder to discuss arrangements for BR Ambedkar’s anniversary celebrations at Jalandhar.
The state Congress president has also ruffled the chief minister’s feathers by speaking of “aligning” with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs to take on Akali Dal leader and former revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, thus indirectly targeting the government’s silence over the special task force (STF) report on drugs submitted to the Punjab and Haryana high court which concluded that the former Akali minister (Majithia) “had a role in supply of a drug to two Canadian NRIs”.
Jakhar was quoted by a section of press on Wednesday as saying that “he had a meeting with Aam Aadmi Party’s Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann inside Parliament during the recently concluded session and they discussed whether they could jointly take up the anti-drug nexus in the state”.
Mann had resigned as the Aam Aadmi Party’s state chief after the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s unconditional apology to Majithia, whom he had earlier accused of being involved in a drug racket.
Jakhar went incommunicado after leaving the chief minister’s office. His personal assistant Sanjeev Trikha said that state Congress chief had left for New Delhi.
Jakhar is also likely to skip Thursday’s function and the crisis managers of the Congress were trying to pacify him.
Some legislators had on Tuesday met Jakhar at the party’s office in Chandigarh to register their protest over the police officers’ postings.
When contacted, the Sangrur MP said he is ready to support the Congress government on the fight against drugs but the party does not need a prop when it is in power and had promised to end the menace.
JAKHAR WENT INCOMMUNICADO AFTER LEAVING THE CM’S OFFICE. HIS PERSONAL ASSISTANT SANJEEV TRIKHA SAID THAT THE STATE CONGRESS CHIEF HAD LEFT FOR DELHI