CHANDIGARH: Hectic lobbying is on by various pressure groups in the ruling party in Punjab to protect their interests under the new dispensation. The lobbying would continue till the expansion of the cabinet in the near future.
The Chief Minister, Harcharan Singh Brar, gave ample indication Sept. 10th, during the swearing-in of his cabinet in the first phase, that he would not succumb to the pressure from various groups within the state or from their mentors in Delhi.
Those loyal to the family of the assassinated Chief Minister Beant Singh held a meeting at Kolli, his native village, after the bhog ceremony at Payal. The number of those who attended this meeting is being put up from 24 to 63, the last being the claim of the Beant Singh loyalists. They maintain that not Jess than 17 former ministers attended the meeting. Then they also included Kewal Krishan, who was the first to be sworn in.
Tej Parkash Singh, the son of the late Chief Minister, was initially proposed to be inducted as a minister of state but he was sworn in as the Cabinet Minister. Brar, however, has been able to withstand the pressure to induct other former ministers despite the fact that some family members of the late Chief Minister made it clear o Brar in the presence of the Union Minister, V.C. Shukla, that the Beant Singh loyalists would not be ignored. This lobby would now mount pressure from Delhi and meet the Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, very soon.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1995
