Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu would have been the right choice for party’s chief minister candidate for the upcoming Assembly polls, his wife and party leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu said on Tuesday. Kaur replied in affirmative on being asked whether Rahul Gandhi was misled on picking up party’s CM nominee.
“Education should be counted for choosing someone at such a high position. Navjot Sidhu would've been the right choice (for CM), irrespective of him being my husband," Kaur was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Rahul had on Sunday declared Charanjit Singh Channi as the Congress’s chief ministerial face for the high-stakes polls, ending weeks-long suspense.
Rahul made this announcement while addressing a virtual rally, where Sidhu also hailed the party’s decision to make Channi as the state CM following the unceremonious exit of Amarinder Singh in last September.
As soon as Gandhi declared the party’s CM face, Sidhu rose from his seat, held Channi’s hand and raised it in a rare show of unity.
Before declaring Channi’s name, Rahul had said, "People of Punjab said we need a chief minister who is from a 'gareeb ghar' (humble family), who understands poverty and hunger. It was a tough decision, you made it easy."
There was a feeling in the Congress that Channi can bring electoral gains to the party, especially in areas where there is a sizeable number of Scheduled Castes population, PTI reported.
Punjab has 31.94 per cent SC population, the highest proportion among all states in the country.
It has a sizeable population of the SC community in Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts in the state's Doaba region.
Punjab goes to polls on February 20 and the counting of votes will take place on March 10.
