Bikram Singh Majithia
As Punjab breathed easy on Tuesday after a week of tension due to the verdict against Dera Sacha Sauda head Gurmeet Ram Rahim, ruling Congress MLAs hastened their efforts to press Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to take action against former Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia over his involvement in an alleged drug racket.
A delegation of over two dozen Congress MLAs met Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar at Congress Bhavan here for over an hour and discussed the issue. The development is being viewed as building revolt against the government with about 40 MLAs out of a total of 77 seeking action.
Four MLAs, led by Dera Baba Nanak legislator Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, had met the CM in Delhi six days ago and submitted a representation signed by about 40 party legislators demanding action against Majithia. Although Amarinder is said to have not taken their representation seriously, some MLAs said they would not keep quiet. The issue was pushed to a back burner in view of escalating tensions in the aftermath of the dera verdict.
Renewing their demand for action, the MLAs’ are learnt to have discussed the issue and impressed upon Jakhar to convince the CM to take a call on the issue as soon as possible. While Amarinder has made it clear several times that he would not act out of vendetta, several MLAs perceive it as him being soft on the Akali leader.
Jakhar, however, denied any such meeting over Majithia. He said the MLAs gather in Chandigarh every Tuesday to participate in meetings of various committees of the Vidhan Sabha and came to Congress Bhavan to meet him. He added that they just had an informal meeting.
Those who attended Tuesday’s meeting include Randhawa, Harpartap Ajnala, Sukh Sarkaria — all three had met the CM six days ago. The list of MLAs meeting Jakhar also included Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Surinder Dawar, Sukhpal Bhullar, Navtej Cheema, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Angad Saini, Balbir Sidhu, Sanjay Talwar, Surjit Dhiman, Nathu Ram, Kushaldeep Singh Kiki, among others.
Many of them are first time MLAs, said sources, and a few have been airing their views openly too. Randhawa has been taking on Majithia for a long time, and the Akali leader has been going around in his area announcing that when SAD comes back to power, he would put Randhawa behind bars. The legislators are questioning the government’s silence despite Majithia making such remarks.
Randhawa is considered close to Amarinder. He was among those who spearheaded a campaign against former PPCC chief Partap Bajwa and is known to have told AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi that only Amarinder could lead the party to power in Punjab.
Party insiders said the legislators were taking on the government at a time when Amarinder is slated to expand his Cabinet and many MLAs are contenders for berths.
