Caste, region, proximity to Gandhis — how Congress picked Channi’s 15-member Punjab cabinet

Channi's cabinet has seven new faces, while five ministers from Amarinder Singh's cabinet have been removed and eight retained. Inclusion of graft-accused has triggered protests.

The new Punjab cabinet with CM Charanjit Singh Channi (seated centre in red turban) and Governor Banwarilal Purohit (to his left) | Photo: PTI

Chandigarh: Fifteen MLAs took oath as ministers in new Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s cabinet Sunday. With two deputy CMs and the 15 other ministers, Channi’s cabinet is now complete and he’s now set to helm the state government for at least the next five months, when assembly elections are scheduled.

While Channi’s cabinet has seven new faces, five ministers from the cabinet of former CM, Captain Amarinder Singh, have been removed, and eight retained.

Caste vote banks, regional representation and closeness to the Gandhi family, or to other senior Congress leaders in Delhi, have been the main criteria of selection for the cabinet.

The party high command, and Rahul Gandhi in particular, are said to have been directly involved in the process of choosing Channi’s ministers, and the list was finalised after three marathon meetings held in Delhi this week. Channi, along with his two deputies Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and O.P. Soni, met Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit Saturday to schedule the swearing-in ceremony.

Talking to mediapersons following the ceremony, Harish Rawat, the party’s state affairs in-charge, said the cabinet has been put together balancing all social and regional variations. He added that those who have been removed from the cabinet will be given positions of responsibility in the government and the party.

Members facing graft allegations

The inclusion of some ministers facing corruption allegations has put a question mark over Channi’s promise of a graft-free government, maiden in his maiden public speech as CM at the Punjab Technical University in Kapurthala Thursday.

Former irrigation minister Rana Gurjit Singh has been inducted into the cabinet again, three years after he was removed from Captain Amarinder Singh’s cabinet following allegations of corruption. It had been alleged that he was involved in a scam relating to the allotment of sand mining contracts to his ex-employees, including a cook.

Amidst speculation about Rana’s cabinet inclusion Saturday, six Congress MLAs from Doaba, his home region, wrote to state party president Navjot Singh Sidhu, expressing “resentment” against the decision and citing the corruption claims. The six MLAs added in the letter that Rana has not yet been given a clean chit in the case. The letter, a copy of which is with ThePrint, was obviously overlooked.

Talking to mediapersons, MLA Sukhpal Khaira, who had returned to the Congress from AAP in June this year and is among the six MLAs who has signed the letter against Rana, said that there were several other “non-tainted” MLAs from Doaba who could have been given the position. “Why should a man who is already facing charges of corruption be inducted into the ministry? Doaba has the highest percentage of Dalits and a Dalit MLA could have been made a minister,” said Khaira.

Also included in the cabinet is Bharat Bhushan Ashu, who till the very end, had been one of the staunchest supporters of Captain Amarinder Singh. A bête noire of party chief Sidhu, Ashu is believed to have been retained in the cabinet because of his connections with the Gandhi siblings, Rahul and Priyanka.

In 2019, when he was local bodies minister, Sidhu had entrusted a DSP with an inquiry into whether realtor had been granted a change in land use illegally following Ashu’s intervention. But the inquiry hit a roadblock after Sidhu’s resignation from the cabinet in July 2019, and the DSP was suspended on Ashu’s complaint.

In February 2020, the suspended DSP had alleged that Ashu had confessed to harbouring two Khalistani militants in a 28-year-old case, and conspired to murder his own uncle. He even produced Ashu’s alleged “confession”, but the matter was never pursued.

Opposition parties, including Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have also made allegations of corruption against Ashu, who had been the food and civil supplies minister in the past.

Addressing a press conference Saturday, AAP leader and leader of the opposition Harpal Cheema said the party will oppose the induction of any tainted minister in the new cabinet. “Will the Congress tell people the reason why Bharat Bhushan Ashu, the kingpin of the mandi mafia, was included?” he asked.

On Rana’s induction in the cabinet, Cheema asked, “Has Rana Gurjit Singh now bathed in Ganga?”

Ones who were dropped and retained

Those who were dropped from Amarinder Singh’s cabinet include former social welfare minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, who has been facing allegations of corruption in the distribution of the post-matric scholarship scheme among SC students.

Others to have been dropped are former sports minister Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi, health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, revenue minister Gurpreet Singh Kangar and industries minister Sunder Sham Arora.

It is assumed that the reason for their cabinet exit was their proximity to the former chief minister. They were among those who had supported Captain till the end.

But as in the case of Ashu, not all Amarinder supporters have been dropped from the new cabinet. School education and public works minister Vijay Inder Singla, another Amarinder aide, has been retained in the cabinet, probably because of his closeness to Rahul Gandhi. Singla became close to Rahul during his tenure as MP in 2009-2014 and was part of his much talked about “youth brigade”. Sources in the party told ThePrint that he has also been retained due to his being from the bania community, which has widespread influence across grain mandis in Punjab.

Veteran Congress leader Brahm Mohindra, who was also supporting Amarinder, is also part of Channi’s cabinet, probably owing to his seniority and his direct links with several senior Congress leaders in Delhi, including Kamal Nath. However, while he had been named as a deputy CM initially, he was replaced by Soni at the last minute.

The others who have been retained include former finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal, who is said to have a direct close association with the Gandhi siblings; Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, both of who were among the leaders of the rebel camp against Amarinder; women minister Aruna Chaudhary, who is related to Channi; and Razia Sultana, wife of former cop Mohammad Mustafa, who was recently made strategic adviser to Sidhu. While Chaudhary is a Dalit, Razia represents the Muslim minority. The two deputy CMs Randhawa and Soni too were in Amarinder’s cabinet; while Randhawa was leading the rebellion against Amarinder, Soni seen as being supportive of the former CM.

Although Channi has retained several ministers from Amarinder’s cabinet, perhaps to quell rebellion from the former CM’s camp, he has not been completely successful in his efforts.  Outgoing ministers Balbir Sidhu and Gurpreet held a press conference Sunday, claiming that they have been unceremoniously removed and humiliated by the party high command.

“We have only two questions to ask of the high command. What is our fault that we have been removed, and why we were not called even once (by the high command) and told to go with respect?” questioned Balbir Sidhu.

New faces

The new faces in Channi’s cabinet include Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) general secretary and in-charge, former India hockey captain Pargat Singh. A close friend of Sidhu, Pargat was the first to publicly start the rebellion against Amarinder some months ago.

Gidderbaha MLA Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, also among the Amarinder baiters, has  been inducted despite vociferous opposition from former finance minister Manpreet Badal. Raja Warring has been attacking Manpreet publicly for several months now for granting money to his “favourites”. Gurkirat Kotli, grandson of former chief minister Beant Singh, is also among the new inclusions.

Senior SAD leaders Saturday objected to the induction of Raja Warring and Kotli in the cabinet. In a press statement, the party’s youth wing in-charge Parambans Singh Bunty Romana and MLA Kanwarjit Singh Rozy Barkandi said Raja Warring was at once accused of abetting the suicide of contractor Karan Kataria, who killed his two children before shooting himself in Faridkot in February this year, while Kotli was accused of raping and molesting a French tourist who had visited Punjab in 1994.

Sources add that there is a strong objection to Kotli’s induction within the party as well, as he is only a two-time MLA.

The other new entrant to the cabinet is Amloh MLA Randeep Nabha, whose name had not been in the first list of ministers finalised Saturday. The MLA had spoken out publicly against some of the others who were being made ministers, and in Sunday’s final list, he replaced PPCC working president Kuljit Nagra, whose name is said to have figured in the first list.

SC leader Dr Raj Kumar Verka and another PPCC working president and OBC leader Sangat Singh Gilzian have also been inducted into the cabinet for the first time. While Verka was an Amarinder supporter, Gilzian was in Sidhu’s camp.

With respect to the regional break-up, eight ministers (including Channi) are from Malwa, the largest region of south Punjab. Among the new ministers, Kotli and Raja Warring are from Malwa. Doaba too has got major representation of three new ministers, Pargat Singh, Gilzian and Rana Gurjit. The Majha region, which was already well represented in Amarinder’s cabinet, has six ministers in Channi’s cabinet.

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)