Capt’s resignation accepted, by-elections in sight

Friday, 25/11/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=168685&boxid=65277&uid=&dat=2016-11-25

Chandigarh : Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Thursday accepted the resignation of Captain Amarinder Singh, the Deputy Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha. Capt Amarinder had tendered his resignation in protest against the November 10 Supreme Court verdict on Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal controversy on Wednesday as he saw it as “injustice” meted out to the people of Punjab.

If one goes by the political experts of the state, winning Patiala (urban) Vidhan Sabha seat is not a tough job for Amarinder and that too when he is being seen as the Congress party’s CM candidate. In such situation, leaving Lok Sabha seat will hardly have any loss to the former CM, who rarely attended the Parliament sessions till date.

Thursday’s development has come with lot of speculations with a majority seeing the possibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) going to conduct the by-elections on the recommendations of the Lok Sabha speaker for the seat now getting vacated, along with the Vidhan Sabha polls scheduled early next year. Though nothing is yet decided, it has rocked the state politics with people seeing it from different paradigms.

The majority of masses now find that it was a well calculated move of the Congress as they see it as making a platform for Navjot Singh Sidhu to join the party fold with an offer to contest from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, which he has represented in the past.

As Sidhu’s former Amritsar MLA wife Navjot Kaur along with former SAD MLA from Jalandhar Pargat Singh is scheduled to join the Congress on November 28, the Congress may offer former cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to contest Amritsar Lok Sabha seat as it fell vacant on Thursday.

Sidhu, who quit the Rajya Sabha in July and the BJP two months later, was reportedly negotiating with both Congress and Aam Aadmi Party for a “favourable outcome” ahead of the next year’s Punjab election but now with seat of his choice getting vacated, observers find it the best suitable chance for Congress as well as Sidhu to join hands.

Moreover, it may enable Sidhu to join Congress and that without accepting Amarinder as his leader, which has demanded for.

Conversely, a section of observers see it as another gesture of Amarinder to adjust his wife as he has already declared ‘one family one ticket’ concept for Punjab elections this time. If Amarinder contests Vidhan Sabha, which is almost sure, his wife won’t be able to get the assembly ticket this time. As she has already remained MP and MoS in UPA government, her supporters see it a possibility for her to go and contest Amritsar bypolls, if announced with state elections, as she did when Amarinder vacated Patiala Vidhan Sabha seat to contest 2014 Lok Sabha seat. It was the opposite earlier. During Preneet’s three stints as Patiala MP, Amarinder was the local MLA.

Moreover, Amarinder has stopped liking Navjot Singh since he expressed his desire to join the Congress but without accepting Amarinder his leader. With Congress weighting between the possible options, the SAD-BJP alliance has also started mulling over the further move on this line.