‘Good luck and goodbye’: Cong’s Punjab ex-chief Jakhar quits party
CHANDIGARH: “Good luck and goodbye Congress,” former Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar said on Saturday as he quit the party weeks after being removed from all positions for alleged anti-party activities.
Jakhar took to social media to make the announcement, which came at a time when the Congress’s top brass is huddled at a three-day Chintan Shivir (brainstorming session) in Rajasthan’s Udaipur to discuss the party’s revamp and its strategy for the 2024 parliamentary elections.
“It is my parting gift to the party. These are my last words to Congressmen. Good luck and goodbye Congress,” Jakhar said during his ‘dil ki baat’ Facebook live from his Panchkula residence.
The 68-year-old disgruntled leader had initially planned to travel to Udaipur and hold a press conference.
The veteran leader said his aim was to show the mirror to the Congress. He, however, did not make any comment about joining another party.
Jakhar headed the party’s Punjab unit for little over four years before being replaced with Navjot Singh Sidhu in July 2021. He was at the loggerheads with the Congress ever since the party leadership issued him a show-cause notice before removing him from all posts on April 30 for “antiparty” activities in the run-up to this year’s assembly elections.
The disciplinary action was taken on Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Chaudhary’s complaint to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that Jakhar’s statements had dented the party’s prospects in the February 20 assembly elections. He, however, rejected the allegations and asked if his statements had damaged the party’s prospects in the elections why was he not sacked. The infightingridden Congress was routed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in
Punjab and managed to win only 18 of the 117 assembly seats.
In his 35-minute Facebook live, former Lok Sabha MP Jakhar also took shots at several Congress leaders “sitting in Delhi”, particularly targeting Rajya Sabha member Ambika Soni for her statement last year that the party should go with a Sikh face after Captain Amarinder Singh was made to resign as the chief minister. Till then, Jakhar was among the front-runners for the CM post.
Calling the Udaipur brainstorming session a “formality”, Jakhar said the party is facing an existential crisis, but it is behaving as if the responsibility of the entire nation rests on its shoulders. “It should have been a ‘chinta shivir’ instead of a ‘chintan shivir’, more about ‘worry’ than ‘introspection’. If they were really worried, another committee would have been set up on the poll debacles in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa,” he said.
Shortly after Jakhar’s announcement to quit the Congress, party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu called him “an asset”. “The Congress should not lose #suniljakhar …. Is an asset worth his weight in gold …. Any differences can be resolved on the table.”