To save his self respect, Sukhu should leave Congress: BJP

SHIMLA: A day after former chief minister Virbhadra Singh attacked former state Congress president Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during an election rally in Hamirpur, BJP has advised Sukhu to leave the Congress to save his self respect. On Thursday, Virbhadra had said, “Pehle Congress me bahut gandh tha, ab theek ho gaya hai (earlier there was rot in the Congress, it is fine now).”
Reacting to the infighting in the Congress coming to fore again, BJP leader and education minister Suresh Bhardwaj said there was no option left before Sukhu but to leave the Congress.Bhardwaj was addressing mediapersons in Shimla on Friday.
It was the stiff opposition of Virbhadra Singh-led faction in state Congress that party high command was forced to remove him from the post right before the parliamentary election and appoint Kuldeep Singh Rathore as the new state president.
Bhardwaj said that by remaining in Congress now Sukhu would only compromise with his self respect. “Sukhu is my friend and it is my request and suggestion to him that no one should stay at any place at the cost of his self respect,” he added.
While referring to deputy leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma, Bhardwaj said that the Congress had fought the assembly election only once from Shimla assembly seat and was defeated. “Since then he never looked back at the state and comes to Himachal only during Rajya Sabha election. Congress workers should think what kind of leadership is being projected in the state,” he added.
He said that Virbhadra was also being sidelined within the party and he was not even included in the process of selecting the candidates. Taking dig at CLP leader Mukesh Agnihotri, Bhardwaj said that no one was consulting him in the party.