Amarinder would hold the portfolios of General Administration, Personnel, Home Affairs and Justice, Vigilance and other departments not assigned to any other minister.
Captain Amarinder Singh, deputy leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and the former chief minister of Punjab believes that it is constitutionally wrong not to have a Leader of Opposition. In an interview with Kavita Chowdhury, he asserts that the Congress party is confident it will bounce back. Edited excerpts:
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the expulsion of former chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh from the state assembly.A bench headed by Justice B N Agrawal, however, stayed the state assembly's decision asking Election Commission to declare Singh's assembly seat as vacant.The former chief minister was expelled from the House after a resolution was passed on the basis of the report of a special committee, which was appointed by the Punjab assembly.
He has no challenger in the Congress, the Akali Dal is in disarray. Will he call a snap election?
Sidhu asserted that he will continue to appear on The Kapil Sharma Show.
Sidhu backed his wife saying 'she would never lie', while the CM said she refused to contest from Amritsar.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt will contest on 17 seats.
'Feeling claustrophobic and humiliated by the manner in which the Congress vice-president was treating him, he started toying with the idea of floating his own party.'
Categorically denying the charge, he slammed the BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra's claim that Punjab, along with other Opposition-ruled states, had expressed doubts and refused to accept the vaccination.
'Everything else is a sham.'
The widening differences between Punjab Congress leaders -- Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu intensified with their wives joining them in the conflict.
Speaking to the media persons in Delhi on Sunday, the Rajya Sabha member said: "I have declined the offer to be the next Punjab CM. I believe Punjab CM face should be a Sikh."
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
The scion of erstwhile Patiala Royal family refused to comment on the number of ministers who will be part of the new cabinet.
There's no doubt that now Captain Singh has no choice: A succession plan has been forced on him. He can sulk, or he can fight back. But the playing field is no longer as level as it was.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that 78 party legislators had sought Singh's ouster in a letter to the central leadership and it was not party president Sonia Gandhi who made him quit.
After the Opposition, now Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar and two MLAs of the party have questioned their government's decision of giving jobs to sons of two legislators and urged Chief Minister Amarinder Sigh to roll back the 'ill-advised' move.
Dominic Xavier offers his take on the tussle between Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and disgruntled Punjab Congressman Navjot Singh 'Sherry' Sidhu, former cricketer and television personality.
"Sidhu could not manage a thing. I know him very well. Don't think that he is some sort of magic word for Punjab. He is going to be a disaster," he said.
Uttam Ghosh offers his take on the weekend's whirlwind political developments in Punjab.
The strategist is expected to visit Punjab for 2-3 days in mid-February for an early assessment.
Raut said during their meeting, Rahul told him the system of creating and building leaders has stopped in the Congress.
'If the Congress wants to keep the ship afloat, it will have to bury the differences.'
Directly questioning the party's high command's decision on the appointment of Sidhu as the new Punjab Congress chief, Jakhar said that the person who was trying to patch up the rift between Captain Amarinder Singh and Sidhu was forgotten by the Congress party.
The three-member panel, set up by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to end factionalism in the party's Punjab unit, submitted its report to her on Thursday and is learnt to have recommended suitable accommodation of former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, setting up of coordination committee and filling vacant posts in the organisation.
The chief minister further expressed the way he has been feeling about lakhs of men and women, and especially senior citizens, who can barely breathe in the toxic air, which is currently evolving in Delhi.
Election rallies have been on for weeks, but nothing captures the immediacy of an election like the sight of candidates filing their nomination papers.
The estimated costs of these weddings start from Rs 100 crore and go up to Rs 700 crore.
Several newly elected MLAs including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, O P Soni are in the race for becoming ministers, party sources said.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday agreed to set up a 10-member strategic policy group to ensure better coordination between the party and the state government and expedite implementation of various government programmes.
'He is worried about how best the Punjab crisis can be resolved.'
While it made sense for Capt Amarinder Singh to support the Gandhis since none of the 23 'rebels' had any mass base, the truce was important for his ambition to lead the party in the February 2022 state elections. Archis Mohan reports.
'The BJP will not win a single seat in Punjab.'
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is quite active in fomenting trouble in Punjab and the grenade attack in Amritsar was a pure act of terrorism, Singh said.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday appointed Navjot Singh Sidhu as the new president of the party's Punjab unit, notwithstanding the opposition from Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
Expressing concerns over another round of crisis in the Punjab unit of Congress, Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari said that he is 'extremely distressed' after Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation as party's state unit chief and claimed that the only people who are happy with what is going on in the border state is the 'deep state of Pakistan.'
Sidhu said 50-100 Congress leaders patted him on his back for the visit.
