Chandigarh: Hours before the Punjab Oath taking ceremony, a new twist came into picture, six MLAs wrote to the State Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu to protest the ‘proposed inclusion of Rana Gurujeet Singh’ in new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s government.
Digging the corpse from the past, MLAs wrote that Rana Gurujeet Singh was laid off from the previous Amarinder Singh’s government in January 2018 for alleged involvement of him and his family in the sand mining scandal, and which resulted in the state forfeiting ₹ 25 crore.
The MLAs also said it was ‘amusing’ that proposed cabinet names from Punjab’s Doaba region were Jat Sikhs and OBC Sikhs, but the area itself had nearly 40 per cent Dalit population.
“Therefore, we all request you to immediately drop Rana Gurjeet Singh from the proposed cabinet expansion and instead include a clean Dalit face in view of the upcoming election,” the MLAs wrote.
Before finalising the names for the cabinet, Mr Channi and party leader Rahul Gandhi had another meeting (this time via a video call), NDTV sources said. The two have already met thrice in Delhi since Mr Channi took oath last week, becoming Punjab’s first ever Sikh Chief Minister.
Reportedly, the list apart from Rana Gurujeet Singh had six names not in the cabinet at the time of Amarinder Singh’s resignation, including Bharat Bhuhan Ashu.
According to sources, Amarinder Singh loyalists – including Brahm Mohindra, Vijendra Singla and Bharat Bhushan Ashu – are to be retained.
Health Minister Balbir Sidhu, Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Sports Minister Rana and three others – Gurmeet Sodhi, SS Arora, Gurpreet Kangar – are likely to be replaced.
Last week former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has resigned from the position as the MLAs had written to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to replace the CM, he had termd the move as ‘humiliating’ and handed over his resignation to the Governor.
Charanjit Singh Channi was made the CM of Punjab and had taken oath for the same. Today his cabinet will take oath at 4:30 pm.
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