Chopra, the MP from Karnal, has caused a stir in the party with his eulogy of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and praise for the Congress.
Chandigarh: In his teenage years, Ashwini Kumar Chopra, 62, was a promising leg spinner sharing the stage with the likes of former India greats Erapalli Prasanna and Bishan Singh Bedi.
Chopra, or Ashwini Minna as he was known, was part of the Rest of India squad that took on a mighty Bombay side in the 1975- 76 Irani Cup. It was in this game that the leg spinner scalped his maiden first-class wicket — Sunil Gavaskar.
Before long, however, Chopra, who played Ranji Trophy for Punjab between the 1975–76 and 1979-80 seasons, gave up the sport to be a part of the family business — his family ran the Hind Samachar group of newspapers that published the hugely popular Hindi daily Punjab Kesari.
Nearly four decades since he took Gavaskar’s wicket, Chopra, now the BJP MP from Karnal, has lobbed a googly, this time in his latest profession of politics.
On Friday, 25 January, Chopra, the editor of the New Delhi-based Punjab Kesari, a breakaway of the original newspaper group published from Jalandhar, compared Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with her grandmother, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, while hailing her entry into politics.
He left the BJP red-faced with his page one editorial that not only eulogised Priyanka but praised the Congress for always practicing “inclusive politics” while lashing out at the critics of “dynastic politics”.
Once the PM’s chosen one
Chopra’s apparent run-in with the BJP is a far cry from when he was handpicked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Karnal Parliamentary constituency in 2014.
Chopra registered a massive victory, by over 3.6 lakh votes. Raring to go in a field he had understood through journalism, sources say he was soon disenchanted with the party.
“He had perceived a larger role for himself but remained limited to Karnal,” said a close aide. And this has everything to do with Karnal assembly constituency throwing up the Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar.
As Karnal MP, Chopra was not consulted when the BJP finalised candidates for the assembly segments falling within his constituency before the 2014 assembly polls.
When Khattar won from the Karnal assembly segment and sought claim to the chief minister’s chair, Chopra protested, saying Khattar had no business doing so.
Thus began an incessant battle between Chopra and Khattar — the newspaper baron went on to criticise the working of the chief minister, saying he was being taken for a ride by “corrupt” bureaucrats close to him.
In February 2016, after the state was rocked by violence during the Jat reservation agitation, Chopra again took on his party’s government in the state. The BJP has backed the chief minister in most cases of discord.
In August 2017, he caused a flutter in BJP circles after meeting Priyanka at his residence in Delhi. She was a neighbour and was friends with his wife, Kiran Chopra, a social entrepreneur, he had then explained.
Known for being blunt, he is also given to sometimes shooting off his mouth. Last year in June, he was in the news for having taken on the Congress for wooing popular Haryanvi dancer-singer Sapna Choudhary.
“Congress mein thumke lagane wale jo hain woh hi thumke lagayenge, yeh unko dekhna hai ki thumke lagane hain ya chunaav jeetna hai (Those in the Congress who dance will only dance. It is upon them whether they want to dance or win the election,” he had then said, sparking controversy.
Early this month, when asked by the media to list the achievements for his constituency, he said that he has not been able to do many of the things that he had promised due to a dearth of funds.
He, however, added that given a chance to serve the constituency again, he will be able to complete the tasks he had promised in 2014.
“But the condition is that they will have to make me come back to power and then I will be able to do all those works,” he said.
Also read: Priyanka the Indira Gandhi that nation waiting for, writes BJP MP, leaves party red-faced
A victim of militancy
Once he left cricket, Chopra went on to pursue journalism.
His family suffered in the militancy years in Punjab — grandfather Lala Jagat Narain was gunned down by Sikh militants in 1982, and two years later, his father, Ramesh Chandra, met a similar fate. In an earlier interview, Minna recalls living in fear despite the family members being given Z plus security.
Following an ugly battle over assets in the Chopra family, Ashwini started the Delhi edition of the Punjab Kesari.
- The report has been updated to remove inaccurate references to Chopra’s education and newspaper. The error is regretted.