After witnessing a change of guard in the Punjab Congress unit with the appointment of Navjot Singh Sidhu on the apex post, all eyes are now glued on the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh who is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet soon.
Amidst the changing political equations not only in Punjab but also within the Congress State unit, Capt Amarinder is expected to replace a couple of his Ministers by inducting new faces in his Council of Ministers.
Available information suggests that the names of Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh and senior MLA Raj Kumar Verka are in the reckoning. While Rana KP is an OBC leader, Verka hails from the Dalit community.
Sources within the Congress party also informed The Pioneer that the Chief Minister may also drop his Ministers. For the same, names of Revenue Minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Technical Education Minister Charanjit Singh Channi are doing the rounds.
It has also been learnt that Channi, if removed from the Cabinet, may be appointed as the Vidhan Sabha Speaker. Notably, Channi had all along been strongly backing Sidhu’s elevation to the Punjab Congress’ top post.
Channi was also among few party leaders, including Ministers, who have openly questioned the Chief Minister and the State Government over several issues, including sacrilege.
At the same time, it would be interesting to see if the Chief Minister would take the party high command in confidence before making changes in his Cabinet. On the other hand, the newly-appointed party president, who completely enjoys the high command’s backing, may also make an attempt to intervene in the Cabinet reshuffling process.
Notably, the party high command appointed Sidhu as Punjab Congress president along with four working presidents — Kuljit Singh Nagra, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, and Pawan Goel — on July 18 brushing aside all opposition by Capt Amarinder.
Initially opposing Sidhu’s elevation, the Chief Minister seems to have made peace with his rival in the party - at least publicly. On Friday, during Sidhu’s installation ceremony, the two warring leaders shared the stage together after a long break, but the indifference and uneasiness between the two was palpable.
Even as the Chief Minister made several “peace” attempts during the Friday event, Sidhu’s body language was louder than his words. Though Sidhu went on to openly place his own party’s government in dock over several issues, his acts of virtually ignoring the Chief Minister on several occasions indicated that the high command’s “peace formula” has failed to work.
“Many Ministers, who have been close to the Chief Minister, turned against him. They backed Sidhu, put pressure on high command to appoint him as PPCC president, spoke against the Chief Minister...Capt Amarinder is aware of everything. And while making any changes in the Cabinet, he would keep these things in mind,” said a senior party leader while reminding how he divested Sidhu from the Local Government portfolio when the party could not perform well in urban areas during 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Another senior leader, who did not wish to be named, said that the high command has given the Chief Minister a “free hand” to carry out any changes in the Cabinet.
As most of the senior leaders, including Ministers from Majha region, including Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, pushed Sidhu’s candidature to the party’s top post, it would be interesting to see if the Chief Minister would make any changes in their portfolios.
