Capt Amarinder to face rebellion within Congress in six months: Khaira

Taking a cue from the three ruling Congress MLAs quitting Vidhan Sabha committees for not being made part of expanded Punjab cabinet, leader of opposition Sukhpal Khaira of the AAP on Tuesday stated that chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh would gradually be facing revolt from the Punjab Congress ‘within 6 months’.

“You will see the rebel Congress MLAs at the door steps of Rahul Gandhi (Congress national president) within six months, asking him to replace Capt Amarinder Singh,” Khaira said at a press conference, adding that some party leaders had already conveyed their resentment to their party high command.

Three senior Congress MLAs — Rakesh Pandey, Amrik Singh Dhillon and Randeep Singh Nabha had, on Monday, called on the Vidhan Sabha speaker and resigned from their respective House committees.

Khaira, in response to a question, did not even rule out a possibility of the AAP MLAs extending support to any such rebel on the floor of the state assembly in times to come.

“We (AAP) will see to it when it comes, but this is going to happen as you could see the three of their MLAs quitting the Vidhan Sabha committees in resentment,” Khaira added.

Khaira also raised his doubts on the ‘credibility of the Punjab police’ and referred to Monday’s incident where a cop was thrashed in Ferozepur during his visit.

“If policemen are beaten by the goons of the Congress who tried to stop my vehicle, you can very well imagine the rule of law,” he added. He reiterated that the Punjab police was "polarised" on the issue of the alleged connivance of certain police officers with the drug mafia under "political patronisation".

“The state’s prosecution is simply not asking for registration of a case against certain people, whose names were submitted to the high court as a part of the legal proceedings in the drug cases,” Khaira added.