Dissidents at Capt meet, but differences persist

Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 17

But for Transport Minister Razia Sultana, all other Punjab ministers, including dissidents, attended a meeting called by Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh at his residence today, ahead of the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

Sources claimed the CM wanted to send out the message that he believed in taking everyone along. In a show of solidarity, the dissident ministers, Sukhjinder Randhawa, Sukhbinder Sarkaria, Charanjit Channi, Gurpreet Kangar and Tript Rajinder Bajwa, arrived together. Appearing ill at ease, one of them said: “If the CM calls a meeting, we have to attend it. But our differences over non-implementation of poll promises persist. We will continue to flag our concerns to the party high command.”

A top functionary at the Chief Minister’s Office, who allegedly had a tiff with Housing Minister Sarkaria a few days ago, was not at the meeting.

Sources said the Chief Minister wanted to “test the waters” as a boycott of the Cabinet meeting tomorrow by any of the dissidents would have caused him embarrassment. Accused of being inaccessible, the Chief Minister has been regularly interacting with legislators and second-rung leaders since the past few weeks.