Charanjit Channi to be first Dalit CM in Punjab
CHANDIGARH: The Congress on Sunday elected Charanjit Singh Channi as the leader of the Punjab Congress Legislative Party (CLP), paving the way for his appointment as the chief minister, a day after Amarinder Singh quit the post.
The change of guard in the state came amid a bitter power tussle between Amarinder and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, barely five months before the state goes for Assembly polls.
“It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Sh. #CharanjitSinghChanni has been unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party of Punjab,” AICC general secretary Harish Rawat said in a tweet.
Channi, a three-time MLA, will be the first Dalit chief minister of the state. With a clean political record, Channi has also been the former leader of opposition in the Punjab assembly. He was the technical education minister of the outgoing Amarinder Singh cabinet. In the assembly, he represents the Chamkaur Sahib constituency.
Channi’s selection assumes significance as the dissensionriven Congress faces the Assembly polls in less than five months.
The BJP had earlier announced that if voted to power in Punjab, it will make a Dalit the chief minister, while the SAD, which is fighting the coming polls in alliance with the BSP, had said that its Deputy Chief Minister would be from the Dalit community.
Channi met the Punjab Governor and staked claim to form government, sources said, adding that Rawat and the party’s central observers Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary accompanied him.
Amarinder Singh said he hopes that Channi is able to keep the border state of Punjab safe.
“My best wishes to Charanjit Singh Channi. I hope he’s able to keep the border state of Punjab safe and protect our people from the growing security threat from across the border,” he said.
The announcement came after hectic parleys in the party’s state unit, with reports of Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, a minister in the outgoing cabinet of Amarinder Singh, being a likely candidate for the CM’s post.
Randhawa, the jails and cooperation minister in the outgoing cabinet, has emerged as the frontrunner for the post of CLP leader, who will be the next CM, a functionary familiar with the matter said. Randhawa, however, had made light of the reports saying that he “never hankers for any post”.
Former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, the party’s current state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Randhawa were also in the running for the post.
With lest than five months to go for the state elections, Singh resigned on Saturday after the Congress summoned a meeting of its lawmakers in the state, saying that he feels “humiliated”.
The two-time chief minister submitted his resignation along with those of his council of ministers to Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhawan barely minutes before a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), widely seen as having been called to remove him from the CM’s post. The meeting was announced by the Congress high command late on Friday, and it
appeared to catch Singh, who was the leader of the CLP, unawares.
The development came amid a power tussle that divided the ruling party in the state, with Singh and Sidhu at loggerheads. Sidhu was made the state Congress chief earlier this year despite opposition by Singh. Sidhu and several Congress lawmakers in the state have targeted Singh for not fulfilling promises made in the 2017 manifesto, being soft on the Badals of the Akali Dal , and an over-reliance on a small group of bureaucrats.
“I feel humiliated...this is the third time they (Congress high command) have called the MLAs. Apparently, they do not have confidence in me and didn’t think I could handle my job. But I felt humiliated at the manner in which they handled the whole affair,” Singh told reporters after submitting his resignation.
Singh said he spoke to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and told her about his decision to quit. “I have resigned and the (Congress) leadership can now make anyone it trusts the chief minister,” he said.
Singh’s exit leaves the electoral battle in Punjab interestingly poised. The Shiromani Akali Dal has still not shrugged off the fall out of the sacrilege and police firing case, and its alliance with the BJP at the time the farm laws that have sparked a protest by farmers that is now into its eleventh month.
Between June and October 2015, three incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib took place in Faridkot district, sparking protests across the state. On October 14, 2015, two protesters were killed in police firing in Behbal Kalan. The same day, police also opened fire on protesters in Kotkpaura. Amarinder had promised strict action against those responsible for sacrilege and police firing. On April 9 this year, the Punjab and Haryana high court quashed the investigation carried out by the state police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the Kotkapura police firing case. The state government has constituted a new SIT in accordance with the court order. The obvious beneficiary of the fallout of these cases, analysts said, could be the Aam Aadmi Party.
According to reports, however, its unlikely that the Congress will contest the upcoming elections under Channi’s leadership.