'Channi will end up as night watchman only': Amarinder's dig after Navjot Sidhu appointed Punjab Congress election committee chairman

Chandigarh: After Congress appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the chairman of its Election Committee in Punjab for the 2022 Assembly polls, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has said that he felt sad and bad about Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi over the way he was being treated by the Congress party.

"I feel sad for him that despite having a tremendous potential, he is being made to be subservient to the whims of the PCC president Navjot Sidhu," Amarinder Singh said while remarking, "Channi will eventually end up as a night watchman only".

Reacting to the appointment of Sidhu as the Chairman of the Congress Election Committee for Punjab, Amarinder said, it was unprecedented that a Chief Minister was made "subservient" to the PCC president.

"No self-respecting leader should accept such humiliation", the former Chief Minister remarked, while suggesting that Channi should resign than face such humiliation and insult.

He pointed out how the Congress had claimed that it had appointed a Scheduled Caste as the Chief Minister but has now made him "subservient" to the PCC president. "Was he just a showpiece to get the SC votes?" he asked.

"Just because someone is behaving like a spoilt child and throwing tantrums day in and day out, you are submitting to all his blackmail and in the process insulting and humiliating your Chief Minister, who is doing a good job", he said, while remarking, "the Congress is going down the dumps".

Amarinder Singh earlier this year quit Congress after months of in-fighting with current state Punjab PCC President Navjot Singh Sidhu and formed his own party. Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Punjab early next year. 

In the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls, Congress won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years. 

Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab Legislative Assembly. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.