After a long battle in the Punjab Congress, the party's top official on Saturday called on Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to resign. This comes after Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Amarinder bettor, was elected head of the Congress of State.
Here are some reasons why the Captain was asked to leave, months before the Punjab Assembly elections.
Defamation, Drugs, and Badals:
Congress came to power in Punjab with the promise of eradicating the drug problem and bringing charges against the suspects. But even after four years, the charges of blasphemy continue to hang. The latest political clashes erupted in early April by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in Kotkapura police who fired shots at protesters against the bargaining scandal when the pages of the angs were torn from Sikh scripture Guru Granth Sahib 14th. Navjot Sidhu, who had been lying on the ground after resigning from Cabinet in 2019 after a change in which he was separated from his portfolio, criticized Amarinder for abusing the investigation, which was terminated by Amarinder. Supreme Court.
Earlier, the Commission of Justice Ranjit Singh, set up by Amarinder in 2017 to look into cases of defamation, made it clear to the Badals in defense of Dera Sacha Sauda but no action was taken.
The idea that Amarinder is soft on the Badals has proven to be one of the reasons for his postponement.
During a vote in the 2017 election, Capt Amarinder, while addressing a rally in Talwando Sabo, vowed to gutka (scripture) to end the drug crisis in the state within a month. Although a large number of cases have been filed against drug traffickers, the view remains that big fish remain free.
Inaccessibility:
One of the biggest controversies of Congressmen was that it would not be possible to meet with the Chief Minister who was surrounded by clan and bunch of people. This time, however, it became more difficult when he stopped going to the Punjab secretary's office in Chandigarh altogether, and he moved his residence in the city to a farmhouse on the outskirts.
The inaccessibility also made him unpopular with people who used to sangat darshan (public audience) and Chief ministers, either Akali Parkash Singh Badal or Beant Singh of Congress.
Government run by bureaucracy:
Congress legislators across the country are complaining that the government is headed by a bureaucracy. Shortly after taking office in March 2017, Amarinder appointed Suresh Kumar, the 1983 IAS official as its secretary general, a position equivalent to that of the central government Cabinet Secretary. The appointment was eventually revoked by the High Court and Kumar resigned, but the CM refused to accept his resignation and the government continues to appeal the Supreme Court's decision. In the absence of the secretary general, many saw Kumar as power center.
And in the regions, the general grouse was that the Badals had retained their power in law. Congress MLAs also complained that their grievances are not being addressed by the authorities.
External polls:
The Congress party sent a survey of foreign agencies to the Punjab, and found that CM's popularity had plummeted, marking the question of whether the party could win the 2022 general election.
Opponents led by PPCC chief Navjot Sidhu and Majha brigade's three-member team - Tript Rajnder Singh Bajwa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria and Sukhjinder Randhawa managed to rally the majority of the legislature against the CM. Several times, they sent letters to senior management and sought an audience with Sonia Gandhi. Although the chief executive appointed Sidhu as PPCC chief in July after a three-member team from Kharge met with all legislatures in June, the two camps could not work together. The last straw was a letter signed by more than 40 MLAs and four ministers to Sonia on Wednesday, demanding a CLP meeting.
