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Punjab Congress heads for showdown at CLP meet today
Chief minister Capt Amarinder’s detractors set to push for his removal at crucial meeting convened in Chandigarh at 5pm
The warring factions in the Punjab Congress are headed for a fresh showdown, with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s detractors being all set to push for his removal at the meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) convened by the party high command in Chandigarh on Saturday.
The dissenting cabinet ministers and MLAs, who are close to newly appointed Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu and had met Congress general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat last month to seek Capt Amarinder’s ouster, have been demanding a meeting of the legislature party to settle the issue.
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Both the Capt Amarinder and Sidhu camps are claiming support of a majority of party MLAs in the state. The Congress has 80 MLAs in the 117-member assembly and the state elections are less than five months away.
Liberate Congress moment: Mustafa
“The high command’s decision to call the meeting means they have heard us and want to settle the matter. There can be no other reason to summon such an urgent meeting. We will speak our mind there,” an MLA from the dissenting group said, requesting anonymity.
However, Sidhu’s principal strategic adviser Mohammad Mustafa called it a “liberate Congress moment” for 79 of the 80 party MLAs to redeem the party and its honour. “Punjab gave Congress 80 MLAs. Sadly, paradoxically Congmen didn’t get a Cong CM as yet. Time to have one after a long agonising wait of 4 and half yrs with an opportunity to choose one and reelect Cong again to have party CM with pain of Punjab and Punjabis at heart for five years (sic),” tweeted the former Punjab DGP. Mustafa’s wife Razia Sultana is a cabinet minister in the Congress government.
Capt hosts lunch for supporter MLAs
While Amarinder is still to comment on the high command’s move, he has gone into a huddle with his political aides and has called MLAs supporting him for a luncheon meeting at his farmhouse before the CLP meeting.
While the chief minister is the leader of the CLP and calls the meeting, the AICC’s move to call the meeting at the party headquarters and direction to the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee to facilitate is seen as unusual.
Ajay Maken, Harish Chaudhary to be observers
The Congress leadership has appointed party leaders Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary, who will be accompanying Rawat, as observers for the CLP meeting. ‘They will probably have a one-on-one meeteing with each MLA and then a one-line resolution is likely to authorise the Congress president to take a decision,” said a senior party leader.
Rawat had made the announcement about the CLP meeting on Friday night. “The AICC has received a representation from a large number of party MLAs, requesting to immediately convene a meeting of the legislature party of Punjab,” he posted on Twitter, asking all MLAs to attend the meeting at 5pm.
Minutes later, Sidhu also took to the microblogging site to inform the party MLAs. “As per the AICC directive, the Congress Legislative Party meeting has been convened at @INCPunjab PPCC Office, Chandigarh, on 18 September 2021 (Saturday) 5pm,” he tweeted.
