Chandigarh, May 12
Punjab Health Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla is in big trouble with the two-member state BJP committee probing her spat with Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Jagdish Sahni ruling that the raids on three ultra sound diagnostic centres associated with Sahni “seemed deliberate” and were the cause for the resultant attacks on her by the CPS.

The committee, including BJP state President Ashwani Kumar Sharma and Amritsar MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, which has submitted its report to party President Nitin Gadkari, has also come down on Sahni for his “irresponsible utterances”.

While Sahni’s castigation was on the cards, the fact that the committee has virtually indicted Chawla may make her position untenable. There is danger of her losing her ministerial post or the party may direct her to “correct” her faults immediately.

According to highly placed sources, the committee has come to the conclusion that the raids conducted on the three diagnostic centers associated with Sahni’s relatives, including his son-in-law, appeared to be deliberate and not random. The committee held that the raiding party targeted only these centres in Batala despite the fact that there were 35 more such centres in the town. It held that this amounted to using “clout” against a party colleague to cause humiliation to him.

The party has noted that Chawla did not respond to Sahni’s messages following the raids and that she even did not pick up the phone of state party President Ashwani Sharma for several days after the raids.

The committee also seems to have faulted Laxmi Kanta’s functioning as a minister. According to sources, the party feels there is a groundswell of opinion against the minister both from the BJP as well as the SAD coalition partner, both of whom claim she does not listen to them.