Soon after being sworn in as the chief minister of Punjab on Monday Charanjit Singh Channi, who is the first Dalit to hold the top post in the state thanked the Congress party leadership for choosing a common man for the top post.
Channi is the first Dalit Sikh to become Chief Minister of Punjab. He has two deputies, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Om Prakash Soni.
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Channi in this first press conference as the Punjab chief minister called himself an “aam aadmi” in an apparent dig at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which looks poised to give tough competition to the Congress in the upcoming state assembly polls.
In his first comments, Channi stressed that he is a representative of the poor and the oppressed and not of those involved in sand mining and other illegal activities
Channi’s agenda will be to tick off the Congress checklist of unfulfilled poll promises that the party believes Amarinder Singh failed to tackle.