Jockeying for power: Game of checkmate in Punjab CM Capt Amarinder’s team

With Rana Gurjit Singh and Suresh Kumar falling to struggle for ascendancy within CM’s coteries, clash of interests has been laid bare.

Two back-to-back setbacks have plunged the 10-month-old Captain Amarinder Singh government into a major crisis. Two of his trusted men have fallen to a game of checkmate being played within his many coteries. The resignation of power minister Rana Gurjit Singh over corruption charges, and the setting aside of appointment of the CM’s chief principal secretary, Suresh Kumar, by the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday are a result of the ceaseless jockeying for power within Amarinder’s charmed circle.

With a cabinet expansion imminent, the dynamics are bound to change. (HT File)

That the confidants of both Rana and Kumar see each other behind the conspiracy, unwittingly, exposes the clash of interests and ambitions of men Captain has chosen in his team.

Each coterie has its own players, of which some are state and others are non-state actors. They wield influence by controlling access to the CM as his gatekeepers and also through the different levers of power -- bureaucracy, party affairs, courts, police and media. With each power centre, there is a counter-magnet. The palace intrigues are spilling over to the day-to-day functioning of the government, taking a toll on the performance of the Congress which had returned to power after 10 years on the promise of ‘Restoring Punjab’s lost glory and pride’.

Lest the Captain likes the game himself.