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Captain steps down

Chief Minister Captain (retd.) Amarinder Singh stepped down from his post handing over his resignation to Governor Banwarilal Purohit.

Perhaps, after 40 MLAs wrote to the All India Congress Committee to convene a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, and with Congress President Sonia Gandhi speaking to the Captain, it was just a matter of time before the Captain stepped down. Once considered among the most powerful Congress leaders, the decline of support for the Punjab Chief Minister has been swift and almost overnight.

“I have resigned from the post of Chief Minister. I spoke to the party president and conveyed that I shall be resigning in the morning itself. The point is that it was the third time in the past few months that MLAs are being summoned to Delhi (by party central leadership); it gives an impression of element of doubt upon me for not being able to run (the government), but I feel humiliated the way things have gone,” Capt. Amarinder told the media after submitting his resignation.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh submits his resignation letter to Governor Banwarilal Purohit at the Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh on September 18, 2021. Photo: Twitter/@capt_amarinder

“I decided to quit, and they can elect anyone as Chief Minister who they trust,” he added.

On his next course of action, Capt. Amarinder said he would decide after talking to his supporters. He reiterated the same answer when asked if he would support the new chief minister.

Earlier, Congress President Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have put a call to the Captain, asking him to step down, after nearly 40 MLAs wrote to the party’s central leadership, expressing “lack of faith in the leadership of the Chief Minister in fulfilling the party’s 2017 Assembly election promises.” The MLAs are alleged to have said that hardly anything was being done towards fulfilment of the 18-point programme issued by the party high command and demanded a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party.

While appearing before the Mallikarjun Kharge-headed panel in June, set up to resolve the factionalism in the State, several MLAs had complained about “the Chief Minister’s inaccessibility and complete control over the administration by bureaucrats”.

Though the Mallikarjun Kharge panel had given an 18-point agenda for the Punjab government to focus on and deliver, not much progress could be made.

Those who  raised the banner of revolt against Capt. Amarinder include four Ministers — Sukhjinder Randhawa, Tript Rajinder Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria and Charanjit Channi — apart from other MLAs.

Saturday’s dramatic resignation is certainly not the last chapter in the power tussle between Capt. Amarinder and former minister and PPCC chef Navjot Sidhu. The latter was appointed on July 18 as president of the PPCC in an apparent attempt to resolve the crisis. Capt. Amarinder and Sidhu have been  at loggerheads since the 2019 Lok Sabha poll. “Future politics is always an option and I’ll use it at an appropriate time,” the Captain said after his resignation.

Among the list of probables likely to don the mantel of CM, former PCC chief and Gandhi family loyalist Sunil Jakhar is considered a frontrunner. In fact, both AICC observers — Harish Chaudhary, a minister in the Rajasthan government, and Ajay Maken — are considered close to former party chief Rahul Gandhi.