Charanjit Channi, Vikramjit Chaudhary locked in tug of war for Congress’ Jalandhar ticket

While Charanjit Channi (left) is trying to generate goodwill on the ground, Vikramjit Chaudhary is camping in New Delhi in the hope of meeting senior leaders and securing the Jalandhar Congress ticket.

Even as the Congress is yet to name nominees for any of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary and former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi are tied in a tug of war for the Jalandhar (reserved) ticket.

While Vikramjit, who had recently resigned as the chief whip of the party in Punjab Vidhan Sabha after being ‘ignored’ by the high-command, is camping in New Delhi with the hope to meet senior leaders and secure the ticket, Channi is trying to generate goodwill on the ground.

On Thursday, Channi, who is being considered the top contenders for the ticket, visited a local mosque in Jalandhar and offered Eid prayers with the Muslim community.

“I have had a long association with the people of Jalandhar. The party will take the final call on the candidate. I will support whoever gets the ticket from this constituency,” said Channi who has been in the city for almost a month now.

He added that several leaders are being considered for the Jalandhar seat, including Adampur MLA Sukwinder Singh Kotli and former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee. “Being a Congress loyalist, it is my duty to support the candidate announced by the party high command,” said Channi, who seemed to categorically avoid mentioning Vikramjit’s name in the list of contenders.

“Even during the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, I actively campaigned for the Congress candidate and stayed at deras in Jalandhar. I will do so this time too,” said Channi.

The Jalandhar bypoll in 2023 had been necessitated by the death of the then MP Santokh Chaudhary,Vikramjit’s father.

The Phillaur MLA said, “The party’s screening committee will take the final call on the candidate. Channi’s mere presence in Jalandhar doesn’t make him a candidate from the constituency.”

“The former CM Channi is going from dera to dera, visiting mosques and paying obeisance at Ayodhya just for purging his guilt of the sins committed during his short stint as the Punjab CM,” said Vikramjit, who is the Chaudhary family’s 16th representative in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, which also happens to be the state’s 16th assembly.

He added that Channi must first answer to the Dalit community as to why no action was taken against those who had misappropriated funds worth crores meant for the welfare of Dalits.

The Chaudhary clan enjoys significant clout in the Dalit politics of the Doaba region and has been politically active since 1936 before Santokh Chaudhary’s wife Karamjit Kaur lost the Jalandhar bypoll last year to AAP’s Sushil kumar Rinku by a margin of 58,691 votes.

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