The reins of Punjab Congress will remain with Captain Amarinder Singh as the party has decided that he will remain the Chief Minister till the 2022 Assembly elections. Highly-placed sources told The Daily Guardian that no change of guard will happen in Punjab till the Assembly polls, due in 6 months. However, the man who raised a banner of revolt against the CM, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, will be accommodated respectfully and will be spared this time for targeting his own government and Chief Minister. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to take final call on Sidhu. The development came after CM Amarinder Singh met the three-member panel formed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to mitigate the Punjab crisis at 15 GRG Road, better known as the Congress war room, for over three hours. Walking out from the marathon meeting, Amarinder Singh downplayed the issue, saying it was a mere election preparation review meeting. “Elections are hardly 6 months away. This was an introspection meet. I won’t divulge what I discussed with the panel,” Captain said even as questions were hurled upon him about MLAs being miffed with him. Speaking with The Daily Guardian, former MP J.P. Agarwal, member of the three-member committee, said that the panel heard all stakeholders patiently and a report would be sent to Sonia Gandhi in a day or two, following which the high command would take the final call on the issue. Congress sources said that several MLAs have asked for complete revamp of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, which has been noted by the panel, and might pave the way for replacement of current PCC chief Sushil Jakhar. There are also indications that the party might also appoint a Dalit as a Deputy CM to strike balance with caste equations. It is pertinent to note that Amarinder Singh comes from Jat background and a Dalit deputy CM will enhance electoral prospects of the grand old party in Punjab, which has the highest SC population in the country.
Earlier, apart from meeting Sidhu, the 3-member panel met the party’s MLAs, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs and even other senior leaders of Punjab. Several MLAs had even objected to the entire meeting exercise that summoning the entire Cabinet including CM and MLAs to Delhi in Covid era had dented the party’s image as the Opposition got an excuse to attack the ruling dispensation.
Union Minister Prakash Javadekar took a dig at the Congress over the ongoing crisis, saying if all MLAs, Cabinet and CM are in Delhi, who is running the Punjab government? He said that this shows that the party was only interested in keeping power rather than serving people of Punjab.