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'New batteries for Delhi remote…': Sidhu slams AAP's Punjab Rajya Sabha picks
The AAP is facing heat from the opposition, which has accused it of 'cheating' people by nominating 'non-Punjabis' and 'outsiders'.
Congress leader Navjot Sidhu on Tuesday hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party - which recorded a thumping win in last month's Punjab election to defeat the ruling Congress - and said four of its five picks for the Rajya Sabha were 'new batteries for remote control in Delhi'.
The jibe was a reference to AAP boss Arvind Kejriwal amid claims by his rivals that he intends to 'control' the new Punjab government from the national capital.
Sidhu, who less than a week ago congratulated the AAP's Bhagwant Mann for becoming chief minister - tweeted: "New batteries for the Delhi remote control, it's blinking... Harbhajan is an exception, the rest are batteries and betrayal of Punjab!."
The AAP has named ex-cricketer Harbhajan Singh as a pick for a Rajya Sabha MP post. The others are Lovely Professional University founder Ashok Mittal, the partys' Delhi MLA, Raghav Chadha; Sandeep Pathak, a faculty member at IIT-Delhi; and industrialist Sanjeev Arora.
Elections for 13 Rajya Sabha vacancies will be held March 31.
Since the announcements, however, the AAP has faced heat from the opposition, which has accused it of 'cheating' people by nominating 'non-Punjabis' and 'outsiders'.
"We welcome Harbhajan Singh's name, but not the other names. We will not tolerate anybody from outside Punjab," the Congress' Sukhpal Singh Khaira said.
He called the AAP's picks 'intolerable'.
A day after the AAP was declared winner of the Punjab election, Sidhu had declarde the result 'the voice of God' and said he 'humbly accept(s) the mandate of the people of Punjab'.
The AAP claimed a massive win over the Congress in the 2022 Punjab election.
The Congress won just 18 of 117 seats as it failed to overcome a leadership crisis instigated by Sidhu and his feud with ex-chief ministers Amarinder Singh and Charanjit Channi.
