After Captain Amarinder Singh’s show of strength last night, the Punjab rebel ministers once again mocked CM’s camp claiming only 35 MLAs and MPs attended political dinner hostedat the house of Sports Minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi.
Earlier, Punjab CM’s media advisor Raveen Thukral had claimed 58 MLAs and 8 MPs have attended this political dinner. He tweeted, “‘I’d invited like-minded @INCPunjabMPs & MLAs for dinner. 58 MLAs & 8 MPs graciously accepted my invitation & expressed the confidence that the party would win the 2022 polls under the leadership of @capt_amarinder.”
However, delegations of Punjab Congress ministers and MLAs demanding Amarinder Singh's removal now say that only 35 people attended the political dinner and they too have a reason. Accordingto the anti-Capt delegation, AICC Punjab in charge and senior party leader Harish Rawat announced earlier that Congress will contest the upcoming state elections in 2022 under the leadership of CM Amarinder Singh, which iswhy some MLAs decided to attend the dinner, otherwise they would have declined as well.
These 35 MLAs to attend Capt’s political dinner at the residence of Mr Sodhi are- Pirmal Singh, Jagdev Kamalu, Sukhpal Khaira, Najar Singh Manshaia, Santokh Singh Bhalaipur, AngadSingh, RamanJit Singh Sikki, Goldi Dhuri, Balwinder Singh DC, Harminder Singh Gill, Raj Kumar Verka, Fateh Jung Bajwa, Ladii Sherowalia, Sukhjit Lohgarh, Gurpreet GP, Balwinder Laddi, Amit Vij, Kuldeep Vaid, Satkar Kaur, HardialKamboj, Harpartap Ajnala, Rana Gurjit Singh, Dharamvir Agnihotri, Navtej Cheema, Arun Dogra, Shushil Rinku, Ajaib Bhatti, Rajinder Beri, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Gurpreet Kangar, Vijayinder Singla, ArunaChaudhary, Brahm Mohindra, Manpreet Singh Badal.
The rebels claim that majority of party members are disappointed by Capt leadership and failure in fulfilling poll promises. They urge Congress high command to send an AICC observer anddiscuss the issue with all MLAs in a meeting before taking any decision.
Meanwhile, Mr Rawat arrived in Delhi today and is set to meet party high command and discuss the key concerns of rebel ministers. According to reports, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, SukhjinderSingh Randhawa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria have also reached Delhi and will try to meet party leaders along with Harish Rawat.
Notably, these three ministers demanding change of guard in Punjab skipped the online Cabinet meeting, meanwhile, Charanjit Singh Channi attended Capt-led-meet.
The minister representing disgruntled MLAs claim that there is resentment among party legislators in Punjab, however, most of the member are not coming forward owing to fear of Capt’sgovernment.
Where Mr Rawat will submit his report to high command regarding ongoing party turmoil.