Hours before the cabinet expansion of Charanjit Singh Channi led Punjab government, the Punjab Congress headed by Navjot Singh Sidhu has apparently played the ‘Dalit Card’. Charanjit Singh Channi has recently replaced Captain Amarinder Singh as chief minister.
In a latest political development, six MLAs and a former minister of Punjab Congress from Doaba region of state have demanded that a Dalit who is not tainted should be included in the ministry instead of a person like Rana Gurjeet Singh.
They have dropped veiled hints that Pujnab will go for assembly polls in the next year and dalit voters will be the deciding factor.
The letter mentions the names of Mohinder Singh Kaypee (Ex President PPCC), Navtej Singh Cheema (MLA Sultanpur), Balwinder Singh Dhaliwal (MLA Phagwara), Bawa Henry (MLA Jalandhar North), Dr. Raj Kumar (MLA Chabewal), Pawan Adiya (MLA Sham Churasi) and Sukhpal Singh Khaira (MLA Bholath).
They have made this demand in the backdrop of proposed inclusion of Rana Gurjeet Singh in the ministry whom they call tainted and corrupt. They have demanded the party to drop the name of Singh owing to his involvement in the mining scam.
“Needless to mention, he was dropped from the cabinet in January 2018 due to the infamous mining scandal involving him, his family and his companies directly in the said scandal,” said the letter.
But this is not the key highlight of the demand placed before Navjot Singh Sidhu and Charanjit Singh Channi. They have alleged that dalit voters have 38 per cent population in Doaba region. But despite this no dalit face from this region have been included.
“It is amusing that all the three ministers proposed to be included in the Cabinet from Doaba region are Jatt Sikhs and one OBC Sikh, whereas there is approx. 38 percent Dalit population in this region. Therefore, we all request you to immediately drop Rana Gurjeet Singh from the proposed Cabinet expansion and instead include a clean Dalit face in view of the upcoming elections,” the letter reads.
Apparently, Navjot Singh Sidhu also wants a Dalit face in the ministry owing to electoral reasons and the possibility cannot be ruled out that the letter was written with his consent.
The three times MLA from Kapurthala, Rana Gurjeet Singh, was inducted in cabinet of Captain Amarinder Singh-led Congress government in March, 2017 as Irrigation & Power Minister. But after nine months he had to resign from the cabinet in January 2018 after he was accused for grabbing sand mining contracts worth Rs 26.51 crore at Saidpur Khurd in Nawanshahr in the name of his staff and others.