With rebellion brewing within the Congress party in Punjab ahead of crucial state assembly polls, party’s three legislators — including Sultanpur Lodhi candidate Navtej Singh Cheema — and a former MLA on Tuesday written to the party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s expulsion for fielding his son as rebel and trying to spoil the prospects of Congress’ official candidate.
The demand came a day after Rana Gurjit’s son revolted against the party and announced to contest as an independent candidate from Sultanpur Lodhi against the Congress’ official nominee Navtej Cheema. In fact, Rana Gurjit, sitting MLA and party nominee from Kapurthala, backed his son terming his decision as “right”.
Backing Cheema’s candidature, Phagwara MLA Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal, Jalandhar North MLA Avtar Singh Junior Bawa Henry, Bholath’s former MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, along with Sultanpur Lodhi MLA, shot of a communiqué to Congress’ national president Sonia Gandhi demanding expulsion of “tainted” Rana Gurjit from the party “for backstabbing Congress by fielding his son as an independent candidate against the party's official candidate and sitting MLA”.
The letter highlighted that “tainted Rana Gurjit” had resigned as a Minister in 2018 from Punjab Cabinet for his alleged involvement in a sand mining scam in the state “and now, he is trying his best to destroy the winnability of the Congress party in the forthcoming elections”.
The Congress leaders alleged that Rana Gurjit was “weakening” the Congress by “deliberately interfering in various constituencies of Doaba region” such as Sultanpur Lodhi, Phagwara, Bholath, Jalandhar North, Banga, among others.
“Though we are apprising the state leadership of the party about his anti-party activities, unfortunately he was reinstated in the Punjab Cabinet instead of taking action against him. It is pertinent to mention that he is still facing serious allegations of illegal mining and has not received clean chit,” said the leaders in the letter, a copy of which was also sent to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, and Punjab party affairs in-charge Harish Chaudhary.
They pointed that after being re-appointed as Minister, Rana Gurjit, “showing arrogance”, has declared his son Rana Inder Partap Singh as independent candidate against the two-time Congress MLA of Sultanpur Lodhi.
“This is nothing but a gross violation of party discipline as well as equal to stabbing the party in the back in the crucial moment when there is strong buzz of forming the government again. He is doing this because he is playing into the hands of opposition parties, especially the BJP. He has close ties with the BJP due to his liquor business and sugar mills situated in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and other states,” they added.
The leaders also maintained that Rana Gurjit Singh also has close ties with the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. “Recently, he helped his close confidante Amandeep Singh alias Gora Gill in joining Punjab Lok Congress and with his support, Gora Gill is all set to contest from Bholath constituency,” they added.
Besides, Rana Gurjit has conspired with the BJP and Capt Amarinder to destroy the Congress party in Punjab. “Under this conspiracy, he is publicly making baseless allegations against PPCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu which is also a violation of party discipline,” they said, adding that “such indiscipline activities are damaging the party situation”.
Highlighting that Punjab’s think tanks were expressing worry over Congress’s situation and predicting that it may repeat its history of 2012 election going by the current indiscipline activities.
“Therefore, in view of the blatant breach and violation of party discipline by the tainted Rana Gurjit, we request you to immediately withdraw his nomination from Kapurthala constituency and send a strong message to such leaders, who are weakening the party. In order to do so, he should be removed from the membership of the party,” they demanded.
Punjab Technical Education Minister Rana Gurjit has been engaged in a bitter war of words with Cheema with the former’s son staking claims over Sultanpur Lodhi seat since long. Khaira, at the same time, has remained Rana Gurjit’s arch rival despite being in the same party.
Rana Gurjit has all along been promoting his son Rana Inder Pratap Singh from Sultanpur Lodhi, who has been going from village to village since past few months and has been openly projecting himself as the ticket seeker from the party. His visits have been drawing him a good response, owing to which he has adopted a more aggressive posture and has intensified his campaign.
The situation led to sharp division in the local Congress leadership with some siding with the minister’s son and others going with the two-time MLA Cheema.
However, owing to the ``one family, one ticket” rule, party allotted ticket to Rana Gurjit, while denying the same to his son.
Claiming that Congress candidate Cheema’s security deposit would be forfeited in the polls, Rana Inder on Monday had claimed that the constituency’s Block Samiti members, the Zila Parishad chairman, and the sarpanches of the area have extended support to him and asked him to contest from the Sultanpur Lodhi assembly seat.