Chawla skips Cong protest, tweets birthday wish to PM

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, September 17

Eyebrows were raised after former president of the Congress city unit Subhash Chawla wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his birthday while tagging senior BJP leaders on Twitter today.

This when the Congress observed the PM’s birthday as “National Unemployment Day.” Chawla was neither present at the protest organised by the city Congress nor tweeted about “Unemployment Day”.

Chawla, a two-time Mayor, posted an old picture of him standing along with Modi at an event and wished him long life and happiness. He tagged Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP vice-president Saudan Singh, local MP Kirron Kher, former city BJP chief Sanjay Tandon, current chief Arun Sood and the BJP.

“Chawlajii, you are welcome in the BJP,” Sandeep Garg, a Twitter user, commented on Chawla’s post. His post went viral in the city today with some wondering if he would switch sides like other Congress leaders.

Recently, two sitting Congress councillors, Harpreet Kaur Babla and Gurcharanjit Singh, had joined the saffron party.

“Yes, people are reading a lot into his (Chawla’s) tweet. We are also surprised, but we do not know what is on his mind,” said a Congress leader.

Not citing any reason, Chawla had resigned from his post in June this year. He, however, had said he would reveal his cards after some time and hold a press conference soon. But, he had not done that yet and has been maintaining silence over various party-related issues. However, he attended a party-organised meeting today.

When contacted, Chawla said, “I wished him as PM. There is no big deal. Nothing political should be read into it.”