53-year-old Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa on Monday took oath as one of Punjab’s two new Deputy Chief Ministers, after Charanjit Singh Channi was sworn-in for the top post. Om Prakash Soni was named the other deputy CM, a surprise decision from the Congress after Cabinet Minister Brahm Mohindra was widely tipped for the position.  

Randhawa was also a frontrunner to become the next Chief Minister of Punjab. Observers appointed by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) finalised Randhawa’s name for the chief minister’s post after feedback from MLAs, according to multiple media reports. However, Channi was announced as Captain Amarinder Singh’s successor on Twitter by AICC general secretary Harish Rawat.

Randhawa comes from a Congress family and has been among the most vocal critics of Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned as Punjab chief minister just less than five months before Assembly polls after a section of Congress leaders openly called for his removal from the Chief Minister’s post for the party’s “survival” in the state. The factionalism was further amplified due to the central Congress leadership’s decision to appoint Singh’s rival Navjot Sidhu as chief of the party’s state unit.

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Captain Amarinder has said he felt “humiliated” over the Congress’s handling of the crisis.

Randhawa represents Dera Baba Nanak in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. He has listed his highest educational qualification as “10th Pass” in a sworn affidavit provided in 2012. Randhawa’s total assets are in the excess of INR 2.5 crore,  according to the affidavit.

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His father, Santokh Singh, served as Punjab congress chief twice and was one of the most senior congressmen in his time.

Randhawa was first elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly after defeating Akali dal’s Nirmal Singh Kahlon from Fatehgarh Churian in 2002 . In 2012, he was elected to the assembly from newly-carved constituency of Dera Baba Nanak. He was one of the 42 Congress MLAs who resigned to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring Punjab’s scrapping of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) water sharing agreement with neighbouring Haryana and other states as unconstitutional in 2016. Randhawa was re-elected from Dera Baba Nanak in 2017 and appointed as state minister of jail and department of cooperation in the Captain Amarinder-led Cabinet.

Randhawa has also served as the vice president and general secretary of Congress in Punjab. He joined Navjot Sidhu in targeting the Captain Amarinder government over its alleged failure to follow up on its promises in 2017 elections.