Jalandhar: The electioneering in Jalandhar hit a new low on Wednesday with Phillaur Congress MLA Vikramjit Chaudhary making a slanderous attack against his own party candidate and former Chief Minister Charanjit Channi, contesting from the seat. Within half an hour, he was placed under suspension by the party on the orders of Congress Punjab in-charge Devendra Yadav.
Photo Morphed: Channi
The picture had gone viral in 2012 Assembly elections, too. This is my real niece. She is married and has kids too. It was taken 17 years back and someone had played mischief by editing it and making it look as if I was indulging in a vulgar act. Charanjit Channi, ex-cm
‘Accept party's order'
I accept the order issued by the party. I am not holding any other position within the party, except the chief whip, from which I had resigned earlier. I also want to ask the Congress state leadership that candidates like Yamini Gomar (Hoshiarpur), Dharamvira Gandhi (Patiala), Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu (Bathinda) and Sukhpal Khaira (Sangrur), who previously contested elections against the Congress, too, have been given tickets. Then why not me? VikramjitChaudhary, Phillaur MLA
The Phillaur MLA, whose mother Karamjeet Chaudhary was the candidate in the 2023 Jalandhar LS bypoll and has moved to the BJP now, issued a press note to the media with a poster of Channi which was “in a bad taste”.
Twisting Channi's slogan that he had used during his chief ministership in 2021-22, the note mentioned that now there was a slogan going around among Jalandhar women, saying, “Ghar ghar de vich challi gall, Channi karda gandi gall”. Channi's posters with a message ‘Jalandhar shehar, Channi di lehar' had come up yesterday at Congress Bhawan and Vikramjit reacted to this slogan.
“Channi's past misdeeds haunting him in the Lok Sabha poll”, wrote Vikramjit, adding, “Hoardings with warnings to the public were coming up in Jalandhar and skeletons had started falling out of Channi's closet.”
Chaudhary said Channi was a morally corrupt man with embarrassing ‘me too' allegations against him by a woman IAS officer. He wrote that leaders of a party that talks about women's empowerment and reservations could not be expected to campaign for such a candidate.
“His latest image is viral and on everyone's phone. With such a disgraceful past, how can Congress leaders convince women voters to vote for Channi? It'll be hard for the leaders themselves to vote for an ‘offender' like him on June 1,” his note reads. Reacting to the posters against him, Channi said, “This picture had gone viral in 2012 Assembly elections, too. This is my real niece. She is married and has kids too. This picture was taken 17 years back and someone had played mischief by editing it and making it look as if I was indulging in a vulgar act.”
A volley of fireworks by Vikramjit against Channi have given an ammunition to the leaders from rival parties who too had started hitting out against Channi on the same issues.
Action taken over ‘unrestrained statements'
Devendra Yadav, in-charge, Punjab, said, “The unrestrained statements made by you that deviate from the party guidelines are not in keeping with the dignity of your post due to which the image of the party is being tarnished and a wrong message is being sent among the public and Congress workers.” He said, “Despite several warnings given to you personally, your conduct of indulging in anti-party activities continues. Therefore, until further action is taken in the matter, you are, henceforth, removed from all party positions held by you and suspended from the party till further orders”.
