On Saturday, Congress veteran Capt Amarinder Singh resigned as chief minister of Punjab with less than five months to go for the Assembly polls. Now as per reports, Sukhjinder Randhawa has emerged as the frontrunner for the chief minister's post. He is a traditional Congressman and a formal announcement will be made soon. However, when, quizzed on his name doing the rounds among the probables to be the new leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Punjab, he replied, he or his family "never hankers for any post".
When the mediapersons here asked that can it be assumed that they are talking to the future chief minister, Randhawa quipped, " You are talking to a Congressman". He slyly took a dig at Amarinder Singh who recently tendered his resignation from the post of Punjab CM. "A chief minister remains (in his post) only till the time when his party, people of the state stand by him", he said. Asked how soon can one expect the name of new CLP leader to be announced, Randhawa said, "We have authorized Congress president in this regard." He said the party senior leadership has not only to talk to the MLAs, but other stalwarts too before finalizing the name. Asked why so much time is being taken to announce the CLP leader, he said, "If you have to make a village sarpanch, sometimes it takes 20 days to decide". On Amarinder Singh saying he felt humiliated, Randhawa replied, "So far, the BJP has changed five chief ministers And in the Congress too, some chief ministers have been changed. In Congress, Amarinder Singh has the maximum tenure of nine-and-half years as chief minister. The honour he got, I think no other chief minister got so much."