Punjab Congress Crisis: Congress veteran leader Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday resigned as chief minister of Punjab with less than five months to go for the Assembly polls after a power struggle with state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, and said he felt ‘humiliated’ over the way the party handled the political crisis.
On the other hand, it was reported that the AICC observers will stay in Chandigarh and next Punjab CM will be finalized by Sunday morning. As per reports, Sunil Jakhar is a front runner for the post apart from Navjot Singh Sidhu. However, other frontrunners include Pratap Bajwa, Sukhjinder Randhawa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Ambika Soni and Vijay Inder Singla. However, the Congress made it clear that it will not contest the next Assembly polls under the leadership of the new chief minister.
Captain Amarinder Singh, one of the Congress’ powerful regional satraps, put in his papers after speaking to party president Sonia Gandhi in the morning and shortly before a crucial meeting of the Congress Legislature Party(CLP) in Chandigarh in the evening.
AICC observers will stay in Chandigarh & next Punjab CM will be finalized by tonight/tomorrow morning. Sunil Jakhar front runner for the post, others include Ambika Soni, Vijay Inder Singla. But Cong will not contest next Assembly polls under his/her (new CM) leadership: Sources
— ANI (@ANI) September 18, 2021
“I spoke to the Congress president in the morning and I told her that I am resigning today,” Amarinder Singh told reporters outside the Punjab Raj Bhawan after submitting his resignation to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.
“I think if there is an element of doubt on me that I could not run (the government) or if there was something else, I feel humiliated the way things have happened,” he added.
He later launched a no-holds-barred attack against Navjot Singh Sidhu, describing his bete noire, a cricketer-turned-politician, as a “total disaster”.
Congress sources told news agency PTI that the party — also battling dissensions in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh where its governments are in power — is trying to balance equations in the poll-bound state and is likely to appoint a Hindu face like Jakhar to the top post.
It must be noted that over 50 MLAs in the party had written to Sonia Gandhi seeking that Amarinder Singh be replaced as chief minister, a move that capped months of a fractious feud between him and Navjot Singh Sidhu who was recently made state Congress president much against the senior leader’s wishes. The Congress has 80 MLAs in the 117-member state assembly.
The CLP meeting was convened by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) with its general secretary and in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat making the announcement in a tweet shortly before midnight on Friday. Such meetings are usually called by the chief minister as he is the CLP leader in the state.
Senior Congress leader Ajay Maken, who was one of the two central observers deputed by the party, told reporters that 78 of the 80 party MLAs were present at the meeting.
He said another resolution praising and thanking Amarinder Singh for his contribution towards Punjab and the Congress was also unanimously passed at the meeting.
At another media interaction, Amarinder Singh said he won’t agree and accept Navjot Singh Sidhu as the chief minister. He dubbed Navjot Singh Sidhu as “anti-national, dangerous, unstable, incompetent” and even a security threat to the state and the country.
“He is a total disaster. When he was a minister (in outgoing cabinet), he could not even run one ministry, now can he run entire Punjab? I know that man has no capability at all.”
If Navjot Singh Sidhu is made the face of the Congress for the Punjab polls, Amarinder Singh said he will oppose him “tooth and nail”. The current term of the state Assembly ends on March 27 next year.
Trouble between the two factions has been brewing for long. Navjot Singh Sidhu has been at loggerheads with Amarinder Singh ever since he quit the Punjab cabinet as a minister in 2019. He had become more vocal in his views in the last some months.
