Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 18: Just about an hour before the Punjab Congress Legislature Party was to meet on Saturday evening to solve the leadership imbroglio, the chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh submitted his resignation to the governor after reportedly expressing “strong resentment” over the “humiliation.”
Before submitting his resignation, Singh was also reported to have called up the party national president Sonia Gandhi and threatened to resign from the Congress if the high command did not rescind its humiliating decision to asking him to quit to make way for a new chief minister who would lead the party to the state Assembly elections due early next year.
He was also believed to have told his supporters that he was weighing various options and would decide the future course of action including quitting the party later. Ahead of the CLP meeting due to be held at 5 P.M. on Saturday, Singh called on the governor half an hour earlier and submitted his resignation, his son Raninder Singh tweeted to disclose the information. Soon afterwards Amarinder Singh also tweeted, “I have resigned. I had spoken to the Congress president in the morning. I had told her I am resigning.”
With a sudden turn of events, the Congress high command took a decision late on Friday night to convene a CLP meeting on Saturday evening to resolve the leadership issue amidst tussles between Singh and his long-time bête noir and recently appointed president of the state Congress Navjot Singh Sidhu. On Saturday morning, the captain was also reportedly advised by the high command to step down ahead of the CLP meeting but the chief minister expressed his strong resentment and threatened to quit the party in the face of such “humiliation.” The chief minister also convened a meeting of the party legislators belonging to his camp but the issue was decided when not many MLAs turned up for the meeting at his Chandigarh residence.
Realising that he had lost the battle in the face of the high command’s stubborn decision, Singh though it wiser to tender his resignation before facing the CLP. But he made no secret of his strong displeasure over the high command’s move to replace him with a new leader heralding a victory for the Sidhu camp.
Though the Punjab Chief Minister had gone incommunicado, sources close to him said he had called senior party leaders like Kamal Nath and Manish Tewari and made obvious his ‘angst’ at the way developments had taken place in the past 24 hours. “He is angry at this kind of humiliation. At midnight you call a CLP; it’s as if some kind of a secret operation is taking place,’’ commented a source close to the CM.
Earlier in the day, Sonia Gandhi asked Amarinder to step down to facilitate the election of a new leader. The Chief Minister, however, refused to give in. Sources said Amarinder spoke to Sonia this morning and told her he would rather resign from the party than face such “humiliation.” The state goes to the polls early next year.
The AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab, Harish Rawat, called for the meeting at 5 pm today in a tweet at 11.39 pm Friday. Sources said former PCC president Sunil Jakhar, once an associate of the Chief Minister, is among the names being considered for the chief minister’s post.
This comes barely two days after several MLAs wrote to Sonia Gandhi, making it clear that the government cannot move ahead in this fashion, a senior All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader said. The letter, the party leader said, was very “strong in nature.” He said, “There was strong pressure. We could not have ignored the letter.”
An angry Amarinder Singh said, “I have been in politics for 52 years. I will talk to my supporters and then I will decide on my future in politics. Future politics is always there, It is an option, I will use that option when the time comes.”
“This has happened for the third time. They called MLAs twice in Delhi. And now, this third meeting,” Amarinder Singh says. “I feel humiliated, feel they doubt my work. I told the Congress President that I will resign. And they can appoint anyone they have confidence in,” he adds.
Once considered among the most powerful Congress leaders, the erosion of support base for the Punjab chief mister was sudden and swift and happened almost overnight. The former PCC chief Sunil Jakhar, tipped to be one of the strongest contenders for the chief minister’s post and considered to be a Gandhi family, appreciated the high command’s bold stand on the issue. “Kudos to Shri @RahulGandhi for adopting Alexandrian solution to this Punjabi version of Gordian knot. Surprisingly, this bold leadership decision to resolve Punjab Congress imbroglio has not only enthralled Congress workers but has sent shudders down the spines of Akalis,” he tweeted.
AICC leaders insist there has been no political interference by the high command and Harish Rawat, the former Uttarakhand chief minister and the AICC in-charge for Punjab, had publicly stated many times that the party will go to the polls with Capt. Amarinder as the Chief Minister.
However, many Congress legislators are said to have bluntly told Rawat that the party would not win next year’s poll under Capt. Amarinder. While appearing before the Mallikarjun Kharge-headed panel in June, set up to resolve the bitter factional fights in Punjab, several MLAs complained about “the Chief Minister’s inaccessibility and complete control over the administration by bureaucrats.” Though the Kharge panel had given an 18-point agenda for the Punjab government to focus on and deliver, not much progress could be made.
Many Congress lawmakers urged the central leadership to take quick action expressing apprehension that the continuing political turmoil would allow the Opposition a better foothold and might even go for demanding dissolution of the state Assembly and imposition of the president’s rule before the elections.