NEW DELHI: So who’s going to be the Chief Minister pick for Congress in Punjab this elections around? In an attempt to generate more suspense on the subject, the Congress on Monday released a video with Bollywood actor Sonu Sood talking about what kind of Chief Minister the state deserved. The video also featured Charanjit Singh Channi. There was no reference to Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Sood’s sister, Malavika Sood, recently joined Congress and is a candidate from Moga assembly constituency. In the video, Sonu talks about the characteristics of a ‘real’ chief minister and a king who has to be coerced into taking the leadership role. According to him, he is somebody whose name need not be announced and he gets there because he deserves it.
बोल रहा पंजाब, अब पंजे के साथ- मजबूत करेंगे हर हाथ। pic.twitter.com/qQOZpnKItd
— Congress (@INCIndia) January 17, 2022
“He (Chief Minister) should be like a back bencher and he is brought forward and told that you deserve this post and then he can change this country,” Sood says in the video.
Soon after Sood completes his narration, videos of Channi, who was made the Punjab Chief Minister last year, play out.
The Congress has till date not announced its chief ministerial candidate in the state.
Channi was handpicked by former party chief Rahul Gandhi after Captain Amarinder Singh stepped down from the top post over his opposition to appointment of cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu as state unit chief last year.
After stepping down as Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh also resigned from the Congress and then floated his own party — Punjab Lok Congress — and announced alliance with the BJP.
The Election Comission, earlier in the day shifted the poll dates in Punjab from February 14 to February 20 after several political parties approached the panel for the same in view of Sri Guru Ravidas Jayanti on February 16.
Counting of votes for 117 members assembly will take place on March 10.