Big earthquake in Punjab politics, angry Amarinder may resign

Chandigarh| Hours before the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting in Punjab on Saturday, the party high command has asked Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to resign to enable the election of a new office-bearer. However, the chief minister has “threatened” to leave the party if he is humiliated.

A close confidante of the chief minister told  “Amarinder Singh spoke to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the morning and told her that he was being humiliated and that he would resign from the party.”

According to some senior party leaders, the high command has clearly asked Amarinder Singh to step down.

The minute-by-minute changing political developments began at around 11:42 pm on Friday night when Punjab Congress in-charge Harish Rawat tweeted about the decision to hold an immediate CLP meeting on Saturday.

After about 10 minutes, state party president Navjot Sidhu has directed all the MLAs to be present in the CLP meeting.

Rawat’s announcement is being seen as a signal from the high command to appoint a new office-bearer, under whose leadership the party will go to the assembly elections to be held in March 2022.

Reacting to the political developments, former state president Sunil Jakhar tweeted, “Wow Rahul Gandhi, you have come up with a solution to the Punjabi version of a very complicated debacle. Amazingly this bold decision of the leadership has not only helped the Punjab Congress.” It has put an end to the mess, rather it has mesmerized the workers and shook the foundation of the Akalis.”

The decision to call the CLP comes in the wake of a fresh letter signed by most of the MLAs, who expressed their dissatisfaction with Amarinder Singh and demanded his removal from the chief minister’s post.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister is reaching his official residence here to meet the party MLAs before leaving for the CLP meeting.

In the meeting, the Chief Minister may choose to take a tough stand in case there is a demand to change the camp.