The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has slammed Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi over his remark directed at the people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Addressing an election event on Tuesday, Channi had said 'don't let UP, Bihar ke bhaiya enter Punjab'. Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was present on the dais when he made the remark.
BJP's IT cell chief Amit Malviya said that the Punjab CM has insulted people of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and attacked Priyanka saying Congress wants to divide the people of the country.
"When the CM of Punjab insults people of UP, Bihar, Priyanka Vadra stands by him, smiles and applauds. This is how Congress will develop UP and the country? It is making people fight among themselves," he tweeted in Hindi along with the video of Channi's speech.
Channi said this while referring to the large inflow of migrants in the state from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The state's economy is mainly dominated by agricultural production. According to a study by Punjab Agriculture University, the majority of the paddy sowing in Punjab is done by migrant labourers from UP and Bihar.
Channi, who replaced Captain Amarinder Singh as the CM in September 2021, is the Congress' chief ministerial candidate in Punjab. He became the first CM from the Dalit community in Punjab. Dalits in Punjab constitute around 32 per cent of the state's nearly 2.8 crore population.
Notably, Priyanka is the general secretary in charge of the Congress of Uttar Pradesh. Her mother Sonia Gandhi is a Lok Sabha MP from UP's Rae Bareli. Her brother Rahul Gandhi represented the Amethi seat in Lok Sabha until his defeat in 2019. Her father Rajiv Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi were also Lok Sabha MPs from Uttar Pradesh.
Polling for all 117 seats in a multi-cornered contest between the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and a new alliance of the BJP and Amarinder's Punjab Lok Congress. (PLC) will take place on February 20. The result will be announced on March 10.
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