Crisis within Punjab Congress is getting murkier, forcing the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to initiate efforts to keep his own House in order. As the murmurs of dissent from some of his own party men are turning into boisterous voices, Capt Amarinder has decided to open a dialogue with them. While on the other hand, a series of meetings were being held by senior leaders almost every day discussing the party’s performance and outcome of the High Court’s judgment.
A rift within the state Cabinet was witnessed a day before. Three Ministers — Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora, and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot — came out in support of the Chief Minister and demanded action against the party rebel Navjot Singh Sidhu.
On the other hand, other three Ministers — Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Charanjit Singh Channi, and Gurpreet Singh Kangar who were seemingly unhappy with Capt Amarinder and also had a secret meeting with Sidhu in Panchkula past week — held a meeting with party’s two MPs — Partap Singh Bajwa and Ravneet Singh Bittu — and decided to approach the party high command to apprise it of the ground realities.
A day later, Channi hosted a meeting of party’s Dalit legislators at his residence, which was also attended by another Cabinet Minister Aruna Chaduhary. While the participants of the meeting maintained that it was only to discuss the issues concerning the Dalit community, its timing is raising many eyebrows within the party unit.Moreover, there are reports that the Chief Minister is seriously considering to fill the Cabinet berth, which was lying vacant since Sidhu’s exit in 2019 — with the sole aim of killing two birds with one stone. Capt Amarinder would not only accommodate one of the disgruntled party leaders in the Cabinet, he would also send across a clear message to his bête noire Sidhu that there was no space for him in his team.
It is believed that the meeting of Dalit legislators was convened to discuss the Cabinet berth.
“We are with the Chief Minister. This meeting is only to make his hands strong…there is no need to read too much of it. We all 32 MLAs, of SC and OBC categories, would soon be meeting the Chief Minister to apprise him of the issues concerning the community as the elections are approaching and we are answerable to the people of the promises we had made in 2017,” said a senior Congress MLA, who attended the meeting convened by Channi.
CAPT REACHING OUT TO DISGRUNTLED LEADERS
Switching into damage control mode considering the political developments within his own party, the Chief Minister has started reaching out to the leaders, including Ministers, who were apparently unhappy with him.
Notably, Cabinet Ministers Randhawa, Channi and Kangar, besides Punjab Congress chief Jakhar openly spokes against the Government and also the Chief Minister during Cabinet meeting following the adverse judgment in Kotkapura firing incident, with Jakhar and Randhawa even putting their papers, which was right away rejected by Capt Amarinder.
Since then, Randhawa and Channi have not participated in the subsequent Cabinet meetings. It was not sure whether two would participate in the next Cabinet meeting, scheduled for May 13.
To pacify them and some other party MLAs, Capt Amarinder has given responsibility to his trusted soldier Bharat Inder Singh Chahal. In fact, Capt Amarinder had also telephoned some of the leaders personally.
Sources informed The Pioneer that the Chief Minister has also reached out to some leaders personally asking them the reasons of their unhappiness with him and the Government.
