Day after reshuffle, voices of ‘dissent’

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 7

A day after the Cabinet rejig, questions are being raised on the criteria adopted by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to effect reshuffle of portfolios of his Council of Ministers.

After the Lok Sabha elections, there had been talk of a reallocation of portfolios as the Chief Minister indicated that he intended to change Navjot Singh Sidhu’s department. Sidhu was divested of the crucial Local Bodies Department and gain the Power and New and Renewable Energy Sources portfolio. Sidhu had said that his department was “singled out publicly” for the Lok Sabha loss.

His Cabinet colleagues, OP Soni and Aruna Chaudhary, who too have been divested of the School Education and Transport Department, respectively, also echoed the same sentiment. Leaders alleged that four ministers — Manpreet Badal, Rana Gurmeet Sodhi, Sunder Sham Arora and Vijay Inder Singla — who fared poorly in the polls have been “rewarded”.

A minister said, “It is certainly a prerogative of the Chief Minister to assign a particular portfolio to particular leader, but the criteria for “performers” and “non-performers” could have been different.”

Meanwhile, speculation is rife whether Sidhu will take charge of his new assignment. His aides said Sidhu would soon announce his plan of action after meeting Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. However, sources said the CM had taken Rahul into confidence before reshuffling the departments.