Ending the day-long suspense, the Congress high command named Charanjit Singh Channi, the Technical Education Minister in Amarinder Singh Cabinet, as the new Chief Minister of Punjab. The Congress Legislative Party has accepted this suggestion of the party high command on Sunday.

Channi, a Congress MLA from Rupnagar district, is known as the Dalit face of the party. By selecting him as the CLP leader, the Congress is also reaching out to the 30 per cent strong Dalit voters in the State ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. The 49-year-old Channi is not known for creating organisational issues and has been in the good books of both the high command and the camp of Captain Amarinder Singh.

Channi will meet Governor Banwarilal Purohit to stake his claim to form the Cabinet. By making Channi the successor to Captain, the high command is also trying to placate him. Channi has also served briefly as the Opposition leader of the State Assembly during the tenure of Prakash Singh Badal.

Channi is a postgraduate in business administration and is working on his PhD thesis from Punjab University. He started as a municipal councillor in Kharar Municipality and was elected as an MLA in the 2007 elections. He repeated success in the 2012 and 2017 elections. "Politics is my way of making a difference in my people’s life, starting from my constituency and the State," he says in his website.

"It gives me immense pleasure to announce that Charanjit Singh Channi has been unanimously elected as the Leader of the Congress Legislature Party of Punjab," said AICC general secretary Harish Rawat after the meeting CLP. AICC general secretary and observer Ajay Maken said Governor has called Rawat and Channi at 6:30 pm.

Related Topics