Jakhar’s appointment as PPCC chief that wasn’t, ‘as of now’!

Sunil Jakhar lost the assembly election this time, but unverified reports of his appointment as president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) were celebrated much like a victory by his supporters starting Wednesday late evening. By Thursday, it turned out to be a rumour.

Ever since the current PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh took over as the CM, speculation has been rife that the former MLA from Abohar, who is a prominent Hindu face of the party, may be “adjusted” also to balance community equations.

In Ludhiana, party workers and representatives of the district unit had already started distributing laddoos, besides flooding Facebook with posts congratulating him. After these started going viral, it turned out that no such decision was taken. Then, screenshots of the celebrations was circulated on messaging application Whatsapp by those looking for a laugh at the party’s expense. Komal Khanna, a former district Youth Congress president who put up photos of celebrations, jus- tified the drama, “We had got calls from party workers from Delhi and Chandigarh that he (Jakhar) has been made PPCC president by the party high command. The information was circulating on WhatsApp too. So, we started celebrating by distributing laddoos among party workers. Later it turned out that a decision on the new PPCC chief was postponed indefinitely.”

While Jakhar was not available for comment from Delhi, his personal assistant Sanjeev Trikha said over the phone, “I have lost count of congratulatory calls since yesterday, from Amritsar, Mukerian, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Moga and Abohar, besides other places. I kept clarifying to each caller that no such decision was taken by the party high command as of now.”

Sunil Jakhar