'What is the problem if a poor man takes a jet ride?': Charanjit Channi after backlash

AAP Punjab leader Harpal Singh Cheema said this is the original face of the new Punjab Cabinet after Channi flew to Delhi on a 16-seater private jet.

A day after the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party slammed Punjab's new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi for taking a chartered flight to Delhi on Tuesday, the chief minister on Wednesday said he fails to understand what the controversy is. "What is the problem with everyone if a gareeb (poor man) takes a jet ride?" he said, dodging the question of who will pay the bill for the ride, reports said. On Wednesday, he was visiting Dera Sachkhand Ballan in Amritsar, when he was asked this question.

Charanjit Singh Channi's journey to Delhi on a 16-seater jet drew flak from opposition.

Charanjit Channi, deputy chief ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, OP Soni and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu flew to Delhi on a chartered flight which drew flak as it is just a distance of 250 km. The emergency meeting was to discuss Cabinet formation, reports said.

"After saying that they stand with the common man, INC leaders take private jets to travel just 250 KMs from Chandigarh to Delhi. Are there no normal flights or cars that can be used? Or is this chest-thumping aimed at the propagation of Gandhi family's Delhi Darbar culture?" the Shiromani Akali Dal tweeted.

AAP Punjab leader Harpal Singh Cheema said this is the original face of the new Punjab Cabinet. No one becomes a common man by saying it, only his deeds reveal the truth of his personality. The real faces of Channi, Sidhu and Randhawa, who were calling themselves poor common men a day before, have been exposed," Cheema said.