Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, his two deputies along with Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu took a chartered flight to Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the expansion of the new Cabinet with the party’s central leadership.
Sources indicated that the team will meet AICC general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs, Harish Rawat, in Delhi.
Sidhu uploaded a photo on Twitter showing him with Channi and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, one of the two deputy chief ministers, beside a chartered plane. “In line of duty !!” he tweeted.
Channi, Randhawa and the other deputy chief minister, O P Soni, were sworn in on Monday, two days after Amarinder Singh resigned as chief minister of the poll-bound state. After hectic consultations, the party had picked Channi as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. Randhawa, a Jat Sikh, and Soni, a Hindu, were apparently chosen to balance the caste equations. Sources said the cabinet is likely to see the induction of fresh faces after the Delhi meeting, where the probable candidates will be discussed. There are indications that those who rallied behind Navjot Sidhu in the power tussle with Capt Amarinder Singh will find a place in the new cabinet.
The names of Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Madan Lal Jalalpur, Inderbir Singh Bolaria, Gurkirat Singh Kotli, Pargat Singh and Sangat Singh Gilzian are doing the rounds. Pargat Singh, considered close to Sidhu, is at present the Punjab Congress general secretary and Gilzian is a working president of the party's state unit.
There is speculation whether Capt Amarinder loyalists like Gurmit Singh Sodhi, who was the sports minister, and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who held the ministry of social justice would retain their positions.
Channi himself was part of the group of ministers who constantly targeted the former chief minister, making it clear that they were part of the Sidhu camp.
Shortly before the swearing of the three ministers on Monday, Harish Rawat triggered a row by suggesting that the coming assembly elections will be fought under Sidhu’s leadership. Former state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, who was at one stage also seen as a CM candidate, said the “baffling” remark would undermine the new CM’s authority. In a damage-control exercise, the Congress then said both Channi and Sidhu will lead the fight in the next election.
SAD, AAP CRITICISE CM, CONG LEADERS FOR CHARTERED FLIGHT TO DELHI
Taking a dig at Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s claim of "aam aadmi sarkar", the Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday questioned the use of a chartered flight to Delhi by him and his deputies. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too slammed the Congress, saying the party could not give up its Royal habits.
Slamming the Congress leaders, the SAD in a tweet said, "After saying that they stand with the common man, INC leaders take private jets to travel just 250 kms from Chandigarh to Delhi. Are there no normal flights or cars that can be used?" "Or is this chest thumping aimed at propagation of Gandhi family's Delhi darbar culture," the party tweeted.
AAP MLA and the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, Harpal Singh Cheema, too said, "No one becomes a common man by saying it, only his deeds reveal the truth of his personality." Real faces of Channi, Sidhu and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who were calling themselves poor common men a day before, have been exposed, said Cheema in an apparent reference to the Punjab CM's statement in which he mentioned about his humble origin.