Not in race for CM’s post: Warring

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring on Saturday dismissed reports of factionalism in the party’s state unit and ruled out being a contender for the CM’s post during the Assembly polls next year.

Warring said this addressing rural workers as part of his party’s statewide protests against the replacing of the MGNREGA with a new job plan by the BJP-led Centre.

He made the statement as factions led by former Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and former cabinet ministers Rana Gurjit Singh and Bharat Bhushan Ashu were absent from the protest.

Taking a dig at those suggesting that there were five chief ministerial aspirants in the Congress, he said there was none as everybody wanted the party to win the election. “The Chief Minister will be decided by the high command,” he said, adding that he too was not a contender for the post from the party.

“I want to fight for the people of Punjab, I want to fight against drugs and gangsters, and I am not fighting for the CM’s position,” Warring added.

Speaking on the occasion, Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa claimed that winds of change had started blowing in Punjab.

Bajwa said if voted to power in the 2027 polls, his party’s government would finish off gangsters within one month. All-India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge for Punjab Bhupesh Baghel said while the BJP government at the Centre had crossed all limits by scrapping a pro-poor and pro-Dalit scheme like the MGNREGA, the AAP government in Punjab was no less as it had failed to provide jobs to people under the scheme.