NEW DELHI: As it moved to unseat Amarinder Singh, Congress worked on several likely scenarios, including the possibility of the governor delaying a new government in case the former Punjab chief minister recommended dissolution of the House.
As it happened, Singh did not go that far, but Congress managers had assessed that the Centre (read BJP) may not have been overly interested in sending a soft signal to the governor as it did not have much skin in the game. There was not much likelihood of any alternative to a Congress government, such as a patch-work, emerging.
Congress sources said that it was felt that BJP would not see any benefit of being linked to a messy political drama so close to the elections where any “break-and-match” formula could hardly yield any returns. Though the former CM has been closer to BJP on national security issues, his vocal opposition to farm laws does not make it easy to reach any arrangement with BJP.
In any case, Congress was ready to rush to the apex court to contend that any recommendation for dissolution would not be legit. The party felt that it had a strong case and any attempted manipulation of the situation would be struck down.