Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary, the Congress candidate for Jalandhar by poll, has received strong support from Jalandhar Congress leaders including municipal councillors, despite the recent defection of former MLA Sushil Rinku to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
About a dozen municipal councillors from Jalandhar West, Sushil Rinku’s assembly constituency, held a meeting at the Congress Bhawan and reiterated their support to the Congress candidate’s campaign.
"We stand firmly with Karamjit Kaur Chaudhary and her campaign to represent the people of Jalandhar," said one councillor. "We are committed to supporting her and ensuring her victory in the upcoming by-poll."The Congress leaders said that Sushil Rinku joining the AAP had starkly exposed its inability to find a candidate for the by-election.
"The defection of Sushil Rinku to the AAP is a setback for the AAP and not Congress party, and it is important to note that the so called ‘badlav party’ has been unable to find a candidate from within their own people to contest the Jalandhar by-poll.
They have been forced to enrol turncoats from other parties, which speaks volumes about the credibility of their leaders,” they said.They further said that the statements of AAP leaders slamming Sushil Rinku and his criticism of the AAP were in the public domain and were already viral on social media.
Phillaur MLA Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, District Congress Committee (Urban) president Rajinder Beri, former Senior Deputy Mayor Surinder Kaur, DDC (Urban) vice president Pawan Kumar, Jalandhar West block president Harish Dhall, former DDC (Urban) vice president Harjinder Ladda, former councillors Bunty Neelkanth, Balwinder Kaur Ladda, Tarsem Lakhotra, Bachan Lal, Anmol Grover, Jagdish Samrai, and Navdeep Jarewal S/o Anita Mintu (all councillors) were among those present in the meeting.