Unfortunate: Sunny Deol on row over appointing representative

New Delhi, July 02: Amid controversy over hiring a 'representative' for his constituency, actor-turned-politician Sunny Deol has issued a statement saying it is "extremely unfortunate to see controversy created out of nothing."

Taking to twitter the Gurdaspur MP wrote "the appointment of PA (Personal Assistant) has been made to ensure smooth flow of work whenever he is "out of Gurdaspur to attend the Parliament or travelling for work".

Deol on Monday appointed Gurpreet Singh Palheri of Palheri village in Mohali district as his representative to take care of the routine work in his absence, creating a huge controversy.

The BJP MP has issued a declaration on his letterhead in which he has "authorised" Palheri to be his "representative to attend meetings and follow important matters pertaining to my parliamentary constituency, Gurdaspur (Punjab), with concerned authorities".

"We are there in Gurdaspur 24x7. We have our offices there. Sunny Deol has a proper plan in place to ensure that we are available to the people of Gurdaspur anytime," the representative said.

Palheri, who is a writer and line producer, said the letter was issued on June 26. Attempting to downplay the issue, he said, "It (appointment) is for local issues. It is like being in 24-hour service of the people of Gurdaspur."

Last month, Sunny Deol had faced flak from the people of the constituency after posting a video of his vacation in Kaza on Instagram. Deol defeated Congress' Sunil Jakhar by a margin of 82,459 votes in the Lok Sabha polls.