Over 50 MLAs wanted Amarinder out; Decision on new CM later today

The Congress has called a meeting of its MLAs for the second time since Captain Amarinder Singh resigned on Saturday (September 18) to pick the new Chief Minister of Punjab. According to reports, Singh’s successor will be announced later today. At least 50 MLAs are learnt to have written to the party high command, seeking Singh’s ouster.

Singh has ruled out accepting his rival party colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu as his successor, calling him an “incompetent man”.

“For the sake of my country, I’ll oppose his (Navjot Singh Sidhu’s) name for the Chief Minister of Punjab. It’s a matter of national security. Pakistan PM Imran Khan is his friend. Sidhu has a relation with Army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa,” the veteran Congressman reportedly said, adding: “Navjot Singh Sidhu is an incompetent man. He was a total disaster in my government. He couldn’t run one ministry I gave him. He did not clear files for seven months.”

According to an NDTV report, the frontrunners for CM’s post are former Punjab Congress chiefs Sunil Jakhar and Pratap Singh Bajwa, and Beant Singh’s grandson Ravneet Singh Bittu. Despite Singh’s objection, Sidhu too remains in contention for the CM’s post.

Earlier, over 50 Congress legislators from Punjab wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking Amarinder Singh’s replacement if emerging reports are to be believed.

As per multiple reports, the MLAs wanted a meeting convened at the earliest, which the High Command obliged by convening it on Saturday evening soon after Singh’s resignation.

In an interview with ANI after tendering his resignation, Singh said he had called the party chief in the morning to convey his decision to resign. Apparently, to which Sonia said, “Sorry.”

Sonia had deputed senior party leaders Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary as central observers.

Also read: Won’t accept Sidhu, Imran’s friend, as Punjab CM, says Amarinder

Asked if he would stay in the Congress or float a new outfit, Singh, fondly called as Captain, said: “There is always an option, and I will use that option when the time comes. I will speak to my people who have supported me for the past 52 years.”

As per reports, Singh called MLAs to his house to rally his loyalists. Only fifteen of the Congress’s 80 MLAs attended the meeting.

“All these claims and allegations that there was resentment in Punjab against my leadership, my government, are false and motivated. I don’t know what prompted the Congress leadership, I just felt very humiliated. In the history of our democracy, show me any chief minister who has fulfilled 92 per cent of the party’s poll manifesto. I did it and I explained all of it to the central leadership. I wrote to them detailing everything my government has done. All this talk from some quarters of an 18-point agenda being unfulfilled is rubbish. The 18-point agenda is from the manifesto. My options are open, I will talk to my people. I know I have served the people of Punjab with all honesty, my Punjabis know this too. They will decide whether I did well as CM or did not. Don’t go by the propaganda being spread against me,” Amarinder told The Federal.