Chandigarh: A race has begun within the Punjab Congress to project a chief ministerial face ahead of the elections. Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Pratap Singh Bajwa and other leaders are being seen as projecting themselves as contenders for the top post.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring has openly opposed this trend. He said that no “self-declared” leader would become chief minister and asked people to “write it down” as a guarantee.
In an interview, Raja Warring said that the high command to announce a chief ministerial face rests only with Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and no other leader has the right to do so. He added that any leader projecting themselves as CM would only face losses.
Raja Warring said the Congress leadership is unhappy with such moves. He said that anyone declaring themselves chief minister would definitely not get the post and reiterated his claim by saying it could be written down as a certainty. His remarks were seen as a direct attack on former CM Charanjit Singh Channi.
After Raja Warring’s statement, Channi’s brother Dr Manmohan Singh said that Raja Warring was right and that projecting oneself as CM on social media was wrong. He said that Charanjit Singh Channi had not made any such declaration. However, he added that Channi was the only leader in the CM race and no one else was in contention. He said the final decision on the chief minister would be taken by the MLAs.
Following the results of the district council and block committee elections, Congress leaders shared victory figures from their constituencies on social media. Channi claimed that the Congress had registered a clean sweep in the district council and block committee polls in his constituency. In contrast, the party suffered a complete defeat in Raja Warring’s home district of Muktsar.
