The grappling members of the Congress party in Punjab are heading for the second round of the bout for supremacy, it seems.
Armed with a permission from the party high command to carry out the Cabinet reshuffle, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh may try to keep at bay his detractors in the party. The possibility of the Chief Minister’s rivals calling a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting to take “tough decisions” too cannot be ruled out. Notably, the legislative party is well within its rights to even oust the Chief Minister.
Even as the Congress high command is patting its own back to devise a “peace formula” to settle down the party’s internal crisis in Punjab, the hostilities between the Chief Minister and his bête noire and the newly-appointed State Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu is far from over.
While the CM, despite all the bitterness he had against Sidhu for his personal tweets against him, tried to bury the hatchet by participating in Sidhu’s coronation ceremony, the former cricketer’s unapologetic attitude and continued criticism of his own party’s Government has once again brought the situation to naught.
Now as the speculations of long-awaited Cabinet reshuffle are rife, the leaders of the two warring camps have already started to exert all pulls and pressure on the high command to ensure their upper hand in the state party affairs.
Capt Amarinder, after his recent meeting with party supremo Sonia Gandhi to apprise her about the progress made on high command’s 18-point agenda, is expected to make changes in his Cabinet soon by dropping a few Ministers and inducting new faces, besides changes in the portfolios too.
During his an hour-long meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Capt Amarinder had reportedly apprised her of Sidhu’s continuous diatribe against own party’s government pointing that it would badly impact the party’s prospects in the ensuing assembly polls.
However, Sonia Gandhi has asked the Chief Minister to work in tandem with the new party chief, while expediting implementation of the 18-point agenda.
While Capt Amarinder was in the national capital to meet Sonia Gandhi, besides the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, Sidhu has been holding meetings with the state leaders, including some of the Cabinet Ministers. What is more! Sidhu, for the first time ever in Congress’ history, appointed his four advisors without taking the Chief Minister into confidence.
Amidst reports of impending Cabinet reshuffle, leaders, including Ministers and legislators, of the Sidhu camp held a meeting and have decided to convene the CLP meeting. It has been learnt that through this CLP meeting, the Sidhu camp wanted to raise the demand of changing the Chief Minister in the State in an apparent attempt to pressurise Capt Amarinder.
Notably, the “leader” of the legislative wing of the ruling party (here Congress), selected by the legislators among themselves, becomes the Chief Minister. And, the CLP is well within its right to choose its leader. At the same time, the state party president can also convene the CLP meeting.
The meeting, which was held at the residence of Cabinet Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa, was attended by over a dozen leaders including Cabinet Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, and Razia Sultana; Punjab Congress’ working presidents Sangat Singh Gilzian and Kuljit Singh Nagra; MLAs Barindermeet Singh Pahara, Kulbir Singh Zira, Kushaldeep Singh Kiki Dhillon, among others.
Sources also informed The Pioneer that the leaders of the Sidhu camp have discussed raising the demand to change the Chief Minister with the party high command. At the same time, the majority of them were of the opinion that it would be better to first raise this demand in the CLP meeting rather than raising the same with the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi.
Notably, a group of MLAs, including five Cabinet Ministers — including Randhawa, Tript Bajwa, Charanjit Singh Channi, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, and Razia Sultana — had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi complaining that the 18-point agenda was not being acted upon.
Realising that the situation in Punjab is set to go out of hand, Sonia Gandhi has deputed the state party affairs in-charge Harish Rawat to quell the infighting. Sonia Gandhi has reportedly instructed Rawat to go to Punjab and solve all the prevailing issues. Rawat is scheduled to visit Chandigarh the next week to iron out the differences between Capt Amarinder and Sidhu and overlook the Cabinet reshuffle.
PUNJAB CABINET ON AUG 16
Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has convened the meeting of his Council of Minister on August 16 after a gap of two months. The previous Cabinet meeting was held on June 18, when a controversial decision regarding government jobs to two Congress’ MLAs’ sons was taken. Also, it would be the first meeting after Navjot Singh Sidhu’s elevation as the state party chief.
With several Ministers openly backing Sidhu and supporting him for his criticism against own party’s Government in the State, it would be interesting to see whether they would participate in the meeting. Also, there are reports that the Chief Minister has insisted that his Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar would also participate in the Cabinet meeting. Notably, owing to strong protest by several Ministers, Kumar was not attending the meetings.