Summary:
Chandigarh, Sep 19 (PTI) The Congress on Sunday picked Charanjit Singh Channi as Punjab’s next chief minister, a day after Amarinder Singh resigned following a bitter power struggle over the past several months in the party’s state unit.
Channi, who met Governor bBanwarilal Purohit to stake his claim for the top job in the poll-bound state soon after being elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, will be the state’s first Dalit CM.
He is set to be sworn in on Monday morning.
The party settled on the technical education minister in the outgoing Amarinder Singh cabinet after a flurry of consultations through the day, following an abrupt cancellation of an 11 am meeting of the CLP.
Several names did the rounds over the next several hours and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa – also a minister in the Amarinder Singh cabinet – appeared to be the clear frontrunner for a while.
The Congress decision was announced on Twitter around 6 pm, and came as a surprise to most.