Hours before the swearing-in ceremony of new CM Charanjit Singh Channi, Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Rawat said that the upcoming state assembly elections will be fought under Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu who is ‘very popular’.
Speaking to ANI, Rawat said, “It will be decided by the Congress president, but given the circumstances, elections will be fought with the Chief Minister’s cabinet under Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, whose chief is Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is very popular.”
His statement, however, did not go down well with veteran Punjab Congress leader Sunil Jakhar, who called the claim “baffling”. “On the swearing-in day of Sh @Charnjit_channi as Chief Minister, Mr Rawats’s statement that “elections will be fought under Sidhu”, is baffling. It’s likely to undermine CM’s authority but also negate the very ‘raison d’être’ of his selection for this position,” Jakhar wrote on Twitter.
Channi will take the oath as the new Chief Minister of Punjab on Monday at 11 am on Monday.
The Captain resigned from the post of CM on Saturday after months of a political tussle with Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amarinder said he stepped down because he felt “humiliated”, and also called Sidhu a “disaster”.
Channi was among the four cabinet ministers and several Congress legislators who had revolted against Amarinder last month. They had said they did not have “faith” in the CM as he had “failed to fulfill promises” made before the 2017 assembly elections. Channi had then said, “unfulfilled promises” included delay in justice in case of desecration of religious texts in 2015, arrest of those involved in drug rackets, and scrapping power purchase agreements. These are the three central issues around which Sidhu fought the intra-party battle with Amarinder.
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