Locals in Makrona Kalan in Punjab’s Kharar point proudly to a dilapidated single-storey house where Channi was born. Less than 40km away lies Amarinder Singh’s private residence.
In Makrona Kalan near Punjab’s Kharar, locals eagerly introduce you to a small single-storey dilapidated house in the village. “This is where Punjab’s first Dalit Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi was born. It is all destiny,” reminisces Jaswant Singh who lives next door.
The house is in bad shape and no one lives here anymore. But this is the house that Channi referred to in his first press conference as Chief Minister on Monday, when he said he was born in a house that had no proper roof and whose walls had to be patched with mud by his mother.
“My father had a small tent house, I used to drive a rickshaw,” Channi recalled of his roots.
About 40 km away from here is the Siswan Farmhouse, the private residence of the former CM and Patiala royal scion, Captain Amarinder Singh. The politics of Punjab also seems to have travelled from Siswan farmhouse to Makrona Kalan, a Maharaja making way for a pauper as the CM.
Posters and hoardings of Channi along with Navjot Singh Sidhu have come up all over Kharar and en route to Makrona Kalan.
BEELINE AT KHARAR HOUSE
A full convoy, complete with jammers and bullet-proof vehicles, had filled up the narrow Gurudwara Road in Kharar town where Charanjit Singh Channi presently lives in a white-coloured bungalow with his family. Channi was here on Tuesday morning before leaving for Delhi. His wife Kamaljeet Kaur is busy fielding good wishes and a stream of bouquets and sweets. “It is a surprise for us all,” Kaur told News18, saying they were preparing for the wedding of their son Navjeet on October 10 when the news came in.
