Veteran Punjab politician Sunil Jakhar, at the event where senior Congress leaders and former ministers in Punjab switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, said the Congress needed to introspect about why experienced leaders were moving away. Mr Jakhar had recently joined the saffron party after quitting the GOP.
If the Congress failed to pledge their allegiance to the country and work on its drawbacks, it might even lose the status of being an Opposition, Mr Jakhar warned his ex-party.
“The Congress should see why such experienced leaders and workers are leaving the party. If they can’t pledge their allegiance to the country and remove the drawbacks of the party, they might even lose the status of being an Opposition,” Jakhar was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Earlier on Saturday, four Congress leaders — Raj Kumar Verka, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Sunder Sham Arora and Gurpreet Singh Kangar, jumped ships to join the BJP in capital Chandigarh.
Among the other who joined the saffron party were former Congress MLA from Barnala Kewal Dhillon, former SAD MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh. The leaders joined the BJP in the presence of Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Som Parkash, state unit chief Ashwani Sharma, and senior party leaders Dushyant Gautam, Tarun Chugh, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Jakhar.
Balbir Singh Sidhu, after the vent where leaders were seen all smiles, expressed his disappointed with the Congress. He said he had been with the grand old party since he was aged around 30 years and now, switched camp at the age of 60.
“I have been in Congress since I was 30-32 years. Now, I am 60-year-old, worked with all my blood and sweat for the party, but the Congress doesn’t identify its workers. The way (PM Narendra) Modi and (Union home minister) Amit Shah work, they give credit to their workers,” Sidhu said.
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