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Chandigarh: The party’s top leadership has been divided into two clear camps amid a battle for supremacy in Punjab between Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and state Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The massive rift has staunch loyalists and old-timers from both sides, making it difficult for the party high command to contain the rebellion.
Here are the details of the top five people from each camp – the status quoists backing Amarinder and the rebels following Sidhu in his quest to oust the chief minister.
the rebels
Sukhjinder Randhawa
Once a close aide of Amarinder, 62-year-old cabinet minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa is leading a rebellion against the chief minister.
When Amarinder was out of power between 2007 and 2017, it was Randhawa who was a constant companion and a vital link between the chief minister and the party high command.
When Amarinder became the chief minister in 2017, it was expected that Randhawa would be immediately inducted into the cabinet considering their relationship.
Instead, to Randhawa’s surprise, Amarinder did not include him in his cabinet until 2018, when he was finally given charge of the Department of Prisons and Cooperation. Even this did not bring any relief to Randhawa, who was holding the charge of the Home Department.
Recently, Randhawa has been at the forefront of outspoken attacks against Amarinder, especially over the rampant drug addiction in the state and for not taking action against Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia. of being involved in the business of. .
Randhawa has also drawn criticism for Amarinder’s alleged apathetic attitude to “pay” Badal in police firing on Sikh protesters in 2015, in which two people were killed. The protests took place in the wake of incidents of sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.
One of the most senior Congress leaders from Majha (the districts bordering Pakistan), Randhawa is the son of a veteran Congress leader Santokh Singh Randhawa, who was close to former Chief Minister Darbara Singh.
Santokh Singh was the party’s state unit chief in 1985, when he was formally removed following allegations of close links to Sikh militants. Senior Randhawa had denied all the allegations.
Sukhjinder Randhawa has gone through his own share of controversies. In January last year, a Video of him allegedly using abusive language Against a Sikh Guru went viral. Randhawa had then claimed that the clip was tampered with.
Akali Dal in March last year alleged That Randhawa had links with a dreaded gangster of Majha. Then in May this year, Akali demanded an inquiry When a case of cheating was registered against Randhawa’s personal assistant.
Read also: Next CM of Punjab? Sidhu’s social media team is working hard to build that image
Charanjit Channi
Channi (58), a Dalit MLA from Chamkaur Sahib, has been critical of Amarinder for some time now. The Minister of Technical Education has been opposing the continuous intervention of the CMO in his department.
For example, he has been opposing the coming up of private universities in the state, but this has been ignored.
One of the young cabinet ministers, Channi has become an MLA for the third time and is known to educate himself. A Bachelor of Laws and an MBA, Channi did a Masters in Political Science while he was the Leader of the Opposition from 2015 to 2016.
He first became an MLA in 2007 when he contested independently after being denied a party ticket.
Tript Rajinder Bajwa
78-year-old Bajwa has turned from friend to enemy of Amarinder. Bajwa, along with Channi and Randhawa, expects one of them to replace Amarinder as chief minister ahead of next year’s elections if they continue the attack.
Bajwa is the son of Gurbachan Singh Bajwa, who was a cabinet minister to several chief ministers including Pratap Singh Kairon. Tript started his political career as a Municipal Councilor and has also served as the General Secretary of the party.
Presently Minister of Rural Development, Bajwa had won from Fatehgarh Churian seat in 2017 by a very small margin.
The four-time MLA is eyeing the Batala seat for the upcoming elections, but Amarinder has started supporting another Congress leader Ashwini Sekhri. Former cabinet ministers Sekhri and Bajwa are and have been arch rivals to blame against each other.
Sukhbinder Sarkaria
Sukhbhinder Sarkaria, 63, has been a three-time MLA from Raja Sansi and is currently the Minister of Mines and Revenue. Considered close to Amarinder, he has maintained a low profile. As such, his support for dissidents against Amarinder comes as a surprise to many. His son Ajay is a rising Punjabi film star.
Pargat Singh
55 year old Pargat Singh was once Akali Used to be Close to Navjot Sidhu for many decades, in part since both have the same career trajectory – sportspersons who became politicians.
The 55-year-old was the captain of the former Indian hockey team and was once regarded as one of the best defenders in the world. He led the hockey team at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Singh was with the Punjab Police when the Akalis offered him a ticket from Jalandhar in the 2012 assembly elections.
However, he was suspended for anti-party parties in 2016, after which he joined Sidhu and along with the Bains brothers of Ludhiana, the two formed the Awaaz-e-Punjab organization.
Later that year he joined Congress along with Sidhu and won from Jalandhar in 2017. Pargat Singh was one of the first MLAs. come out against This year when Captain Amarinder Singh held a press conference after meeting with the CM. Sidhu recently made him the general secretary of the party in the state.
Read also: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh may struggle to fulfill the tasks of the 5 Congress high command
remain so
Brahma Mohindra
One of the senior most Congressmen in the state, 75-year-old Brahm Mohindra is the Minister for Local Self-Government and Parliamentary Affairs.
He was the major beneficiary when Amarinder changed Sidhu’s portfolio after the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Sidhu had powerful local government, which Amarinder handed over to Brahm Mohindra, who was the health minister at the time.
Mohindra has been a six-time MLA from different constituencies in Patiala district. son of a A lawyer, he was active in the Youth Congress and has been a member of the AICC since 1987. He has also served as the Vice President and General Secretary of Punjab Congress.
Despite being among the top leaders of the state, Brahm Mohindra has always been dominated by Amarinder, whose home constituency is also Patiala.
Though he has been backing Amarinder in the current crisis, the two have been at loggerheads for decades. In January 2015, Mohindra launched a full blown attack On Amarinder for defying the party high command as deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.
Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi
Rana Sodhi, a 67-year-old MLA from Guru Har Sahay in Ferozepur, is the Sports and NRI Minister of Punjab. Sodhi, a two-time MLA, was the Chief Parliamentary SecretaryRa Amarinder’s political secretary During his first term as Chief Minister since 2002.
Sodhi joined the Youth Congress in 1976 and contested for the first time in 1985 at the behest of Rajiv Gandhi.
After the 2017 elections, Sodhi was not made a minister when Amarinder took over as CM, but was later included in the first major reshuffle in 2018.
Sodhi’s son Anumit alias Heera last October, who was facing investigation in the attempt to murder case, was appointed an information commissioner. Sodhi himself is fighting recovery suit The complaint was filed by the PWD against him and his family members for allegedly paying double the compensation for the acquisition of land owned by them. Sodhi initially tried to make peace between Amarinder and Sidhu, but was unsuccessful and has been supporting the chief minister ever since.
Sadhu Singh Dharamsotti
TeaHe is 61 years old Forest and Social Justice Minister, MLA from Dharamsot Nabha. One of the few senior Dalit leaders of the party, Dharamsot was an accused in a major SC post-matric scholarship scam last year.
His department’s principal secretary, Kripa Shankar Saroj, accused him and his officials of misappropriating funds worth Rs 63 crore for scheduled caste students in professional colleges.
Despite heavy pressure from within the party and the opposition, Amarinder took no action against Dharamsot. a report good Vini Mahajan, giving a virtual clean chit to Dharamsot by the Chief Secretary, overturned the findings of the Principal Secretary.
However, the opposition and Dalit bodies also continued put pressure on Government on this issue. At present, a separate CBI investigation is going on in this scam.
Has been a five-time MLA Assistant Amarinder has been against Sidhu from the beginning.
Read also: Amarinder says Jallianwala memorial is good, hours after Rahul’s humiliation
Shyam Sundar Arora
The 63-year-old Industries Minister is an MLA from Hoshiarpur and is a staunch supporter of Amarinder.
The two-time MLA was accused of being involved in an illegal land deal in July this year. shad and you are firing for aurora The exchequer reportedly suffered a loss of over Rs 400 crore after the sale of 30 acres of land given to the government to a private realtor. The AAP has also questioned his relationship with a former Naib Tehsildar booked by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau in a disproportionate assets case. However, the minister has denied all the allegations.
Arora, considered close to former Union minister and senior Congress leader Ambika Soni, won the election in 2002. However, he was denied ticket in 2007, when he contested as an independent candidate, but was defeated. As Industries Minister, Arora has nothing to show in the last four years in terms of attracting investments to the state.
Bharat Bhushan Ashu
MLA from Ludhiana West since 2012, 50-year-old Ashu is the Minister of Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs.
He had served as Municipal Councilor in Ludhiana from 1997 to 2012. He won the assembly elections in 2012 When Akali-BJP alliance formed government.
Ashu became Deputy leader of the party in the assembly. When Amarinder Singh returned to power in 2017, he inducted him as a minister..
However, Ashu has a major personal complaint against Sidhu. In early 2019, as Local Bodies Minister, Sidhu assigned a DSP Balwinder Singh Sekhon with an inquiry To find out whether a realtor was illegally allowed a change in land use after Ashu intervened.
Sidhu had even then said that no minister would be spared if he was involved, a veiled reference to Ashu. After Sidhu’s resignation from the cabinet in July 2019, the investigation was hampered and the DSP was suspended on Ashu’s complaint.
In February 2020, the suspended DSP alleged that in a 28-year-old case, Ashu had confessed to harboring two Khalistani terrorists and had hatched a conspiracy to kill his own uncle. He also submitted Ashu’s “confession”, but the matter was quietly suppressed.
(Edited by Arun Prashant)
Read also: How did an act of defiance in Mughal India strengthen Sikh-Muslim relations at Malerkotla in Punjab?
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