BJP gets personal, Sampla takes dig at Jakhar’s Swiss in-laws
PATHANKOT: Attacks of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against Congress nominee for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha bypoll Sunil Jakhar seem to be getting personal.
Punjab BJP president Vijay Sampla on Thursday cautioned Gurdaspur voters against choosing an “outsider” over a “local” candidate of the party, Swaran Singh Salaria.
But Sampla did not stop at only dubbing Jakhar an “outsider”. “He hails from Panjkosi in Abohar. It is close to the Rajasthan border,” he said. The distance, Sampla said, only gets more intimidating if voters were to meet Jakhar if he was at his in-laws. “Even if Salaria is at his in-laws’ place, voters can meet him as they live in Tanda Urmur (in Hoshiarpur). But in the case of Jakhar, one will have to go to Switzerland as his in-laws live there,” Sampla said while addressing a press conference on Thursday.
The BJP chief, however, had to face a volley of questions on whether its own four-time MP, Vinod Khanna, who lived in Mumbai, was a local. The seat is witnessing a bypoll as Khanna passed away in April. The BJP chief projected Khanna as a local saying the actor-politician had bought a house in Pathankot and hailed from the area.
On the defensive on the “outsider” tag on Jakhar, the Congress too has launched a counterattack on the BJP, asking it to clarify its definition of the term. “Salaria too is settled in Mumbai for his business. And where did Vinod Khanna live?” Congress leaders ask voters. Minister Brahm Mohindra, in Pathankot, said the BJP was trying to mislead people over petty issues.
Jakhar, on his part, said he will not indulge in mudslinging like the BJP. “They are devoid of issues to take on the Congress.”
The “local” tag is also what AAP candidate Maj Gen SK Khajuria (retd) is banking on.
Even if Salaria is at his inlaws’ place, voters can meet him as they live in Tanda. But in the case of Jakhar, one will have to go to Switzerland. VIJAY SAMPLA, BJP state chief