Captain Amarinder Singh on Sunday extended wishes to newly appointed Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Chinna. After several meetings, speculations, Congress announced today evening Charanjit as the CM after Amarinder Singh on Saturday stepped down from his post after months of political tussle with his bete noire and PCC president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Amarinder Singh's media advisior Raveen Thukral on behalf of the former CM wrote, "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."
After much wait, Senior Congress leader Harish Rawat today evening officially on Twitter announced, "Charanjit Singh Channi has been unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party of Punjab." A three-time MLA, Channi is the first Dalit chief minister of the state.
After discussion with the Punjab MLAs, AICC had earlier proposed the name of Sukhjinder Randhawa for the post of CM.
Earlier today a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party was postponed after Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni - believed to be the party's first choice - declined the offer. Soni said "no" at a late-night meeting with Rahul Gandhi; she stressed on the "ramifications" of a non-Sikh Chief Minister, particularly with an election due.
Earlier, reports had surfaced that a section of Congress MLAs had written to the party leadership to convene a CLP meeting to discuss the poll strategy and progress on the 18-point agenda, which includes action on the 2015 desecration cases and arrest of the "big fish" in drug rackets.
Last month, four ministers and around two dozen party legislators had raised a banner of revolt against Amarinder Singh and had said they had no faith in his ability to honour unfulfilled promises.
Congress sources, who were once close to Amarinder, whisper his handling of the farmers’ stir and favorites among ministers and legislators getting the bulk of development projects sanctioned in their constituencies, led to his downfall in the party.
