Decision on new Punjab CM in next 2-3 hours, says MLA

A meeting of the Punjab Congress Legislative Party, which was slated for 11am on Sunday, has been deferred, with one MLA, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, saying a new chief minister will be appointed soon.

Party sources said that a consensus is yet to be made on the name of the new CLP leader, who take over the chief ministership from Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned on Saturday.

Punjab | A decision will be taken in the next 2-3 hours:
Congress MLA Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on the announcement of new Punjab CM, in Chandigarh pic.twitter.com/9RqqwWVyhI

— ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2021

The names of former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, current state state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Randhawa are doing the rounds.

“We will abide by whatever the party leadership decides,” said a party leader.

AICC general secretary and Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Rawat and the party’s central observers, Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary, are currently in Chandigarh.

Punjab Congress legislators on Saturday had authorised party president Sonia Gandhi to pick a new CLP leader.

Congress veteran Amarinder resigned with less than five months to go for the assembly polls after a bruising power struggle with Sidhu. He said that he felt “humiliated” over the way the party handled the protracted crisis.

The 79-year-old, one of the Congress’ powerful regional satraps, put in his papers after speaking to the party president and shortly before a crucial meeting of the CLP on Saturday evening. He later launched a no-holds-barred attack against Sidhu, describing his bete noire, a cricketer-turned-politician, as a “total disaster”.

Meanwhile, reports said Congress leader Ambika Soni refused to take the chief minister’s post during a meeting with her colleague Rahul Gandhi. Soni said there may be consequences if a Sikh is not selected as the chief minister.

Congress sources had said the party, which is 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. Jakhar, who is not an MLA, is believed to be close to the top Congress leadership.