With the ruling Congress party divided , the party’s chief whip on Thursday issued a “whip” to ensure the presence of all its 80 legislators during the one-day special session of Punjab Vidhan Sabha to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Sikhs\ ninth master Guru Tegh Bahadur.
Punjab Congress’ chief whip in the state legislative assembly and Rajpura MLA Hardyal Singh Kamboj
has issued the whip to all its MLAs.
The development assumes significance as the Punjab Congress unit is facing a severe infighting and intense power struggle between the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and the state Congress president and MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The prevailing internal strife has led to a clear division within the state party unit with one section exhibiting their complete faith in the Chief Minister, while another backing Sidhu. In fact, Capt Amarinder’s four Ministers, once known to be his staunch loyalist, have raised a banner of revolt against Capt Amarinder and insisting on his replacement.
It has been learnt that two of the Ministers — Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria — had even met Punjab Vidhan Sabha Speaker Rana KP Singh, but it was not clear what was the agenda of their meeting. Both Ministers, along with Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Charanjit Singh Channi, had met Punjab party affairs in-charge Harish Rawat at Dehradun to seek Capt Amarinder’s replacement. In fact, these Ministers strongly backed Sidhu’s case for the elevation to the party’s top post, amidst strong protest by the Chief Minister.
Notably, no other legislative business has been scheduled during the one-day special session on Friday.
However, the decision to issue a whip to ensure presence of all MLAs during the entire session assumes significance as there are apprehensions that some of the rebel Cabinet Ministers and legislators may give a miss to the special session, which may lead to a major embarrassment to the Chief Minister and the State Government.
Kamboj, at the same time, maintained that issuing a whip is not uncommon. “Normally, the whip is issued to all MLAs to ensure the presence of everyone. And as tomorrow, the session is important as it is dedicated to Guru Tegh Bahadur ji, everyone should be present,” he said.
As per the orders, all the MLAs have been asked to remain present during all the sittings of the one-day session, and reach the House at 9:30 am. “All the members of Punjab Congress Legislature Party are requested to reach Punjab Vidhan Sabha, Chandigarh, without fail, on Friday, the 3rd September, 2021, at 09:30 am, and remain present in the House during its all sittings, till the whole business of the House is over,” read the orders.
The one day session will begin at 10 am with obituary references to Olympian athlete Flying Sikh Milkha Singh, internationally-acclaimed veteran athlete Mann Kaur who breathed her last at the age of 105 recently, besides former Union Minister RL Bhatia, former Ministers—Gurnam Singh Abul Khurana, Gulzar Singh, Surjit KAur Kalkat, Chaudhri Radha Krishanx Inderjit Singh Zira.
Other than that, former IPS officer Mohd Izhaar Alam, CRRID founder Rashpal Malhotra, among others will also be remembered.