Rahul to Capt: Not happy with Rana controversy

With the Captain Amarinder Singh government caught on the wrong foot on recent sand mining auctions, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday expressed his displeasure to the Punjab chief minister over allegations of benami transactions against power and irrigation minister Rana Gurjit Singh.

Amarinder, who was at New Delhi to attend the ‘antim ardas’ of former Punjab DGP KPS Gill, met Rahul early in the day. Acting on the feedback Rahul received from Congress leaders in Punjab, including some MPs, he has reportedly asked Amarinder that the party’s image was suffering owing to the unsavoury row.

Rahul’s office had also sought a detailed explanation from one of Amarinder’s aides in the chief minister’s office (CMO) on the issue recently and the action taken by the government. They were informed about the judicial probe ordered by the government under Justice (retd) JS Narang, which has also been rubbished by the Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the SAD. One of party’s MPs from Punjab is also learnt to have written to Gandhi, saying that the entire controversy has tarnished the party’s image in just two months of the new government coming to power and has demanded that Rana be sacked.

However, according to highly placed sources in the party, the CM is learnt to have told Rahul that they should not pronounce the minister guilty before completion of the judicial probe. With names of some Congress MLAs being involved directly and indirectly in the mining auctions, an overwhelming majority within the state Congress wants the auctions to be called off and held afresh and the minister to step down till his name is cleared.

Amarinder is also learnt to have discussed the cabinet expansion with Rahul.

RAHUL’S OFFICE HAD ALSO SOUGHT A DETAILED EXPLANATION FROM ONE OF CAPT’S AIDES IN THE CMO ON THE ISSUE RECENTLY