Amarinder Singh: Sunny Deol 'filmy fauji', I'm a real one

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh campaigns for party candidate from Sangrur, Kewal Singh Dhillon, before his nomination filing ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, in Sangrur /PTI

Gurdaspur (Punjab): Dismissing the possibility of any threat to Sunil Jakhar, the Congress candidate for the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat, against BJP's Sunny Deol, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Friday said that the latter was just a "filmi fauji" with no ground support in the constituency.

Talking to the media here after accompanying Jakhar for filing his nomination papers, Amarinder said: "He (Sunny Deol) is a filmy fauji, while I am a real fauji."

Amrinder, who comes from the erstwhile royal family of Patiala and is still addressed as 'Maharaja Saab' in certain quarters, remained a Captain in the Army in the 1960s.

"We will defeat him, he is no threat to Sunil (Jakhar) or the Congress," he declared.

Describing Sunny Deol as an "ageing actor whose acting career was over", Amarinder said "he will come and go".

"Sunny might have played 23 Punjab's (Regiment's) Brigadier Kuldip Singh Chandpuri in (movie) "Border", but that does not make him a real soldier, said the Chief Minister.

The Bharatiya Janata Party this week announced that Sunny would be its candidate for the Gurdaspur seat in north Punjab. Earlier, the BJP MP from Gurdaspur was another actor, Vinod Khanna.

The seat is presently held by Jakhar, who is the Punjab Congress president.

When it was pointed out that Sunny Deol's latest movie "Blank" was set for release, Amarinder said: "He will draw a blank (in the elections)."

He expressed confidence that the Congress will win all the 13 seats in the state, including Gurdaspur.

Amarinder said he had gone through Punjab and the mood across the state was upbeat and totally in favour of the Congress. "There was absolutely no competition to the party."

Asked to clarify on the Congress high command's decision to pin responsibility on ministers and MLAs for the electoral performance of the party candidates in these elections, the Chief Minister said it had been decided to hold ministers and MLAs responsible for victory or defeat of Congress candidates in their respective constituencies.

"If a minister is unable to ensure victory, he will be dropped, and MLAs who fail to deliver will not get the ticket next time," he said, explaining the new "performance-led culture" in the party.

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