Murmurs of dissent within the Congress party’s Punjab unit over the Cabinet expansion are getting louder with time. Three more legislators on Monday raised the banner of revolt by resigning from the Vidhan Sabha committees in protest.
Senior Congress MlAs — Rakesh Pandey, Amrik Singh Dhillon and Randeep Singh Nabha — have submitted their resignations from the state assembly committees to the Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana Kanwar Pal Singh as a mark of protest against being “ignored” in the recent cabinet expansion.
Already, the MlAs, representing the dalits or other backward classes, have registered their protest with the party high command for not giving them enough representation in the Cabinet, while three of them — Sangat Singh Gilzian, Surjit Dhiman, and Nathu Ram — have tendered their resignations from the party posts.
The Cabinet expansion exercise by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has ruffled many feathers with many senior MlAs airing their dissent in public, besides taking up the matter with the party’s national president Rahul Gandhi.
So much so, that the sulking MlAs have even refused to accept the Chief Minister’s “lollipop” offer for the chairmanship of various boards and corporations of the state government, while some of them have even refused to accept the proposed post of ‘legislative assistants’.
Even as the state party leadership has been maintaining that rebellious voices have been calmed, the recent outburst by three sitting MlAs may put a spanner in Congress’ campaign for Shahkot assembly bypoll, scheduled for May 28.
ludhiana (North) MlA Pandey has resigned as Undertaking Committee chairman, while Amloh MlA Nabha resigned from the membership of the same committee and Samrala MlA Dhillon resigned from the chairmanship of the library Committee of the House.
The three MlAs maintained that they would meet the Congress president Rahul Gandhi to register their protest and decide the future course of action.
“No senior state party leader, including the Chief Minister, have contacted us or listened to our grievances. Our sincere work has been ignored,” said Nabha while talking with The Pioneer.
Six-time MlA Pandey said that they had resigned because the seniority of MlAs was ignored while expanding the Cabinet.
Dhillon take on the Chief Minister by saying that Capt Amarinder had “promised to consider seniority in giving ministerial berths. But one-time and two-time MlAs have been chosen over us”.
Congress has a total of 77 MlAs, and only 18 can become the Ministers. Capt Amarinder, after cabinet expansion, had assured that all the Congress MlAs, who had not found place in the Council of Ministers, would be inducted into various Boards and Corporations.
“The state has 7,000 jobs, ranging from the Market Committees to the Planning Boards, that can be given to party workers,” he had stated on the day new ministers took oath.
The state party president Sunil Jakhar had also described protest by senior MlAs as “natural reaction”, while maintaining that the leaders would be given other responsibilities within the party or government.
“People have given us about two-third majority…We have 77 MlAs and such reaction by deserving MlAs is quite natural but we have just nine slots to fill with so many choices…The leaders would be given significant positions or roles in the near future,” he had stated.
Notably, the party and the government is preparing a list to ‘adjust’ the MlAs in various boards and corporations. Out of 62-odd boards and corporations, only eight can have an MlA as chairman.
However, the government is proposing amendments in the rules of boards and corporations to adjust the MlAs as their chairman so they do not attract office of profit clause.
The ordinance making amendments to the Punjab legislature (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1952, that prohibits elected representatives from holding any office of profit will be soon brought before the Cabinet.