Sunil Jakhar is an Indian politician and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, formerly a member of the Indian National Congress. He was the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (2017-2021). As a member of INC, Jakhar represented Abohar Assembly Constituency from 2002 to 2012. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. After serving as a member of the INC for five decades till 2022, he joined the BJP.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Sunil Kumar Jakhar was born on Tuesday 9 February 1954 (age 68; as of 2022) in Panjkos, Punjab. His zodiac sign is Aquarius. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts from Government College, Chandigarh in 1974, he went on to do Masters in Business Administration from Kurukshetra University, Haryana (1997).
family
parents and siblings
Sunil Jakhar belongs to a Hindu Jat family. His father, Balram Jakhar, was an Indian politician who served as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha and the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Balram Jakhar, who died in 2016, was the Speaker of the Lok Sabha for two consecutive terms from 1980 to 1989, the longest serving Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Sunil Jakhar’s father, Balram Jakhar
Sunil is the youngest of three siblings. Sunil’s elder brother Sajan Kumar Jakhar served as Agriculture Minister in the Bent Singh government in Punjab. In 1997, Sajan Kumar, on an INC ticket, contested the Punjab Legislative Assembly elections from Abohar Assembly Constituency. Sajjan was defeated by BJP candidate Ram Kumar in the election. After that, Sajjan’s political journey came to a halt when the party did not grant him a ticket in 2002. Sunil’s elder brother Surinder was an advocate of farmers’ rights, but he never entered electoral politics. Surinder accidentally shot himself in 2011.
wife and children
His wife, Silvia Jakhari, is a homemaker and is originally from Switzerland.
Sunil Jakhar and Sylvia Jakhar
other relatives
Sunil Jakhar’s nephew, Ajay Vir Jakhar (Sajjan’s son), served as the Chairman of Punjab State Farmers Commission (2017-2021).
Ajay Vir Jakhari
Address
permanent address
Panjkos, Teh. Abohar, Distt. Fazilka-152128, Punjab
Current address
Punjab Bhawan, Copernicus Marg, New Delhi-110001
Political career
Indian National Congress
1996 general election
He began his journey as a politician when he contested from the Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency in the 1996 general elections on an Indian National Congress (INC) ticket. Mohan Singh Falianwala of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won the seat.
2002 Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections
In 2002, Sunil Jakhar contested from Abohar Assembly Constituency. He defeated independent candidate Sudhir Nagpal in the election by 7339 votes.
2007 Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections
In 2007, Sunil Jakhar contested from Abohar Assembly Constituency. He defeated BJP candidate Ram Kumar in the election by 17,201 votes.
2012 Punjab Legislative Assembly Elections
In 2012, Sunil Jakhar contested from Abohar Assembly Constituency. He defeated independent candidate Shiv Lal Doda in the election. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha.
2014 Indian General Election
In 2014, he contested the Lok Sabha polls from Ferozepur Lok Sabha constituency in which he was defeated by SAD’s Sher Singh Ghubaya by a margin of 31,420 votes.
Punjab Legislative Assembly Election 2017
In 2017, Sunil Jakhar contested from Abohar Assembly Constituency. He was defeated by BJP candidate Arun Narang who won the election by 3279 votes.
2017 Gurdaspur by-election
In 2017, a biopolitic was announced on the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat after the death of BJP actor Vinod Khanna. Jakhar contested and won the seat from BJP candidate Sawarn Singh Salaria by 1,93,199 votes. As an MP, he was a member of the Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests.
Indian General Election 2019
In 2019, Sunil Jakhar contested from Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency. He was defeated by popular Indian actor and BJP candidate Sunny Deol by 82,459 votes.
Leave Congress in 2022
Days after receiving notice from the Congress high command, Sunil Jakhar resigned from all posts in the Indian National Congress on 14 May 2022; He announced his decision to leave Congress via a public Facebook Live video, in which he concluded his address by wishing Congress good luck and goodbye. She said,
This is my parting gift, my last words to the congressmen. I have emphasized what chinta needs and not chintan shivir. Good luck and goodbye Congress.”
Bharatiya Janata Party
In May 2022, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claiming that he wanted to support “nationalism, unity and brotherhood in Punjab”. Addressing the media after joining the BJP, Jakhar insulted the Congress by referring to Charanjit Singh Chan, the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab. He accused the party of offending the spirit of brotherhood in Punjab by trying to divide the state along caste, community and religion percentage lines.
Sunil Jakhar joins BJP with party president J.P. in the presence of Nada
On 2 December 2022, he was inducted into the BJP national executive as a member along with Captain Amarind Singh.
confrontations
Alleged violation of election rules
In 2012, Akali Dal leader Shiv Lal Doda filed an election petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court against Sunil Jakhar challenging the results of the 2012 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections. Doda alleged that due to wrong publication of the ballot paper, his voters and supporters, especially illiterates, voted in favor of the person from Series 1 (Jakhari) as they could not find Doda’s name at the end of the ballot paper. The election petition was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court saying the petition was completely frivolous and vexatious and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on Doda.
Linking Sukhbir Singh Badal with Bhim Tank killer Shiv Lal Doda
In 2017, Jakhar filed a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab, providing him with seven mobile phone numbers that Jakhar said were used by Akali Dal leader Shiv Lal Doda and his nephew Amit Doda in Fazilka jail. Shiv Lal Doda and Amit Doda were lodged in Fazilka Jail after being charged in the Abohari Bhim Tank murder case. During the press conference, Jakhar said that even a DGP-level officer of the Punjab Police regularly contacted Doda through these phone numbers and demanded a fair investigation. According to reports, Jakhar also tipped off the Election Commission of India to conduct a raid in Fazilka Jail, after which it was found that Shiv Lal Doda had violated jail laws by illegally meeting 24 foreigners on the jail premises. Jakhar also claimed that such facilities could not have been provided to Doda without the active support of Sukhbir Singh Badal, president of Akali Dal, who was then serving as the deputy CM of Punjab.
Anti SC remarks
In April 2022, Dalits filed a complaint against Sunil Jakhar for his alleged anti-community remarks, alleging that his offensive language had hurt the sentiments of Dalits. Jakhar appeared to be indirectly targeting Charanjit Singh Chan, who became the state’s first Dalit CM, holding him responsible for the party after the Congress defeated the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections. In his tweet, Jakhar called Chan responsible and blamed him for bringing down the INC in Punjab.
Asset – What are you kidding?
Thank god he was not declared a ‘national treasure’ in the CWC by the ‘Pbi’ lady who first proposed him as CM.
He might be an asset to him, but to the party he was just a liability. Not the top brass, but his own greed brought him and the party down pic.twitter.com/Lnf6vJgRzF
— Sunil Jakhar (@sunilkjakhar) March 14, 2022
Following the incident, members of Sri Guru Ravida Federation Punjab and Satguru Ravida Dharam Samaj Punjab burnt an effigy of Sunil Jakhar. Later, Sunil Jakhar paid obeisance at Sant Ravida’s Janam Asth Mandir in Varanasi to tender an unconditional apology.
Members of Sri Guru Ravidas Federation in Ludhiana protest against Sunil Jakhar for his anti SC remark.
Disciplinary action by Congress
Following his anti-SC remarks, the AICC cracked the whip against Sunil Jakhar for going against the party line, issuing a show-cause notice seeking a reply within a week. After that, there were speculations about Jakhari being suspended for two years and removed from all party posts. At the end of the deadline to respond to the notice, Jakhar refused to respond and said he was ready to take action.
assets and properties
movable assets
- Deposits in banks, financial institutions and non-banking financial companies: Rs.8,60,38,105.
- Bonds, bonds and shares in companies: Rs 20,09,133
- Personal Loan/Advance Disbursed: Rs 3,71,345
- Motor vehicles: Rs 1,00,079
- Other assets like claims/interest value: Rs.1,29,45,673
real estate
- Agricultural land: 2,67,70,146 GEL
- Commercial Buildings: Rs.2,00,000
- Residential Buildings: Rs.12,25,04,180
In May 2019, Sunil Jakhar declared deposits of Rs 7.37 crore in Zurcher Kantonal Bank in Zurich, Switzerland, in the name of his wife. Jakhar also stated that he and his wife have real estate worth 2,88,41,688 and 1,20,63,26,638 GEL.
Net worth
As of 2019, his net worth is Rs 25,17,62,701.
Facts/Trivia
- Sunil Jakhar broke records in Gurdaspur Lok Sabha constituency by winning Gurdaspur by-election 2017 with 1.93 million votes. The previous record for the highest margin of victory in the constituency was held by former Congress MP Sukhban Kaur Bhinder, who won by 1.51 million votes in 1980.
- In the 1996 general elections, Sunil wanted to contest from the Sikar Lok Sabha constituency, a seat his politician father had represented twice in the past, but was instead given the Ferozepur Lok Sabha seat by the INC.
- Like Sunil, his father Balram also served as Leader of the Opposition (1977). After that he graduated from Central Politics in 1980.
- Jakhar announced that he was quitting electoral politics on the same day that Rahul Gandhi announced then minister Charanjit Singh Chan as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly elections. He then claimed that the party did not elect him as its chief minister because he is a Hindu.
Categories: Politics
Source: dienchau2.edu.vn
