CHANDIGARH: The crisis in Punjab Congress, brewing for months now, worsened on Tuesday after nearly 30 party MLAs, including four cabinet ministers, declared an open revolt against chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and said that they had no faith that he would be able to fulfill poll promises.
They also accused the chief minister of conspiring with Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The Congress high command had in July given an 18-point agenda to Amarinder for early implementation. Amritsar East MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu, who took over as Punjab Congress president exactly a month ago on July 23, has been highlighting the agenda regularly and during his first meeting as PPCC chief with the chief minister, Sidhu had listed five “priority areas” that the state government needed to act upon immediately, including sacrilege, drugs and power purchase pacts.
All these cabinet ministers and MLAs, considered to be in Sidhu’s camp, held the meeting at rural development and panchayats minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa’s official residence in Chandigarh and decided that a five member committee will meet the Congress high command in New Delhi and seek Amarinder’s removal. Sidhu was not part of the meeting.
Channi: We now do not have any faith in Amarinder
Hardly six months before the 2022 legislative assembly polls in Punjab, these Congress legislators said that they do not have any faith that the party would be able to fulfill all promises made before the 2017 state assembly elections under Amarinder’s leadership. Interestingly, none of the group of 30-odd MLAs disclosed who they wanted to replace Amarinder as the chief minister.
The meeting was also attended by jails and cooperation minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, technical education and industrial training minister Charanjit Singh Channi, revenue minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria besides Congress general secretary (organisation) Punjab and Jalandhar Cantt MLA Pargat Singh.
As these disgruntled cabinet ministers had earlier come out openly in Sidhu’s support before his elevation as the PPCC chief, they also feared their removal from the council of ministers in the impending cabinet reshuffle by the chief minister. The ruling Congress in Punjab has 80 MLAs and one cabinet berth is vacant since Sidhu, who was at loggerheads with Amarinder, resigned in July 2019 after Amarinder stripped him of the key portfolio of the local bodies department.
“Capt Amarinder and Sukhbir Singh Badal are handin-glove. We are moving to Delhi to wake up the party high command and if the high command does not listen to us, we will then decide the next course of action,” cleared Bajwa. However, he said that it is the prerogative of the party high command as to who should be the next chief minister.
Echoing his sentiments, Channi said, “We now do not have any faith in Amarinder and therefore we have held a meeting today because we are not getting a solution to our problems from this chief minister.”
Attacking the chief minister, Randhawa, who was once very close to Amarinder, said, “Water has now gone over the head. Wars cannot be fought by sitting in a drawing room or just by tweeting. Wars are fought on the ground. Day-byday, the SAD and the AAP are attacking the Congress on the Bargari sacrilege issue and people ask us about the cancellation of the power purchase agreements and other unfulfilled promises.” He pointed out that Amarinder does not even think it appropriate to physically come and meet his cabinet colleagues during cabinet meetings though he can attend the huge gatherings in Amritsar and other places. “For the last six months, Capt Amarinder is totally cut off,” he quipped.
It is learnt that Bajwa was also annoyed with Amarinder, who is also heading the home department, after his nephew and PPS officer Navjot Singh Mahal was removed from the post of Hoshiarpur SSP on August 20 and was posted as commandant of the 7th battalion of the Punjab Armed Police at Jalandhar with the additional charge of the AIG STF at Jalandhar.
The disgruntled cabinet ministers and MLAs also were of the view that the public statements being made by Punjab Congress president’s advisers – Malwinder Singh Mali and Dr Pyare Lal Garg – were unacceptable. They decided to take up this issue with Sidhu to refrain them from making controversial statements that dented the Congress party.
Sidhu meets mins, MLAs in party office
Later in the evening, Sidhu met three cabinet ministers – Bajwa, Randhawa and Channi – besides eight other MLAs, including Pargat, in the Punjab Congress Bhawan. He tweeted a photo of the meeting saying, “Got a call from Tript Bajwa ji asking for an emergency meeting…Met him along with other colleagues at the PPCC office. Will apprise the high command of situation.” After this, the committee was to leave for Dehradun to meet Rawat.
Rawat to meet party leaders in Dehradun
Harish Rawat, Punjab Congress in-charge and former CM of Uttarakhand, who was in Dehradun on Tuesday, said some of the Punjab Congress ministers had sought a meeting with him, and they were expected to reach Dehradun by Tuesday night. “There is no dispute between Sidhu and the CM, but some factors have emerged. One of Sidhu’s advisers has given some statements, though he says it is distorted, but this statement is very objectionable,” he added.
Rawat also said that there were some complaints about vindictive actions being taken against some of Congress leaders and he had also expressed displeasure about such activities. “Today I came to know that some MLAs are meeting at a place and I gave them some advice. If they have accepted my advice, it is well and good,” he added.
Asked about the Congress leaders seeking removal of Amarinder, Rawat replied, “Till now nobody has discussed the leadership change with me and such a situation should not come.” Rawat said he would discuss it with the party high command.
