In protest of the Supreme Court’s decision on the presidential reference regarding a 2004 law on sharing of the Sutlej-Yamuna river waters,
all 42 Congress MlAs in Punjab on Friday submitted their resignations. Punjab Cabinet, a day before, had already decided to convene a special one-day Punjab Assembly Session on November 16 to discuss the issue threadbare.
All 42 Congress legislators, including leader of Opposition Charanjit Singh Channi, formally handed over their resignations to the Assembly Secretary Shashi lakhanpal Mishra in the absence of Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal, shouting anti-Modi and anti-Badal slogans.
Senior Congress leaders including State party chief Capt Amarinder Singh, who announced his resignation as lok Sabha member on Thursday, and Rajya Sabha members Partap Singh Bajwa and Ambika Soni accompanied the party legislators.
Capt Amarinder also held a meeting with the senior leaders and MlAs before handing over their resignations at Punjab Vidhan Sabha. “Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has failed to protect the interests of Punjab’s people. We will stage a statewide protest on the issue on Sunday,” said Capt Amarinder.
He maintained that neither he will be in Parliament, nor “our MlAs in Vidhan Sabha…We will go to the people”.
“Why is Badal not protecting Punjab’s interestsIJ Is it because he has made a lot of money and doesn’t care what happens in his area,” asked Capt Amarinder. The Congress party also demanded the resignation of SAD MP and Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Badal’s daughter-in-law, on moral ground as the “BJP government at the Centre has failed to act in interest of Punjab”.
Punjab Congress also demanded resignation by SAD and BJP MlAs over the issue, with Capt Amarinder blaming that the Akalis were “adopting double standards”.