Armed with the queries regarding cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu starting his new inning by starting a YouTube channel or directly approaching he party high command, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday played down his differences with his party colleague saying that he has no issues with it.
Capt Amarinder maintained that anyone can start a channel or can even discuss any matter with anyone in the party.
Notably, the former Minister Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Capt Amarinder, was blamed for his “inept handling” of the Local Government Department for the party’s “poor performance” in the urban areas during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
In June, the Chief Minister had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments, allocating him the Power and New and Renewable Energy portfolio after which he had resigned from the Punjab Cabinet.
When asked about the status of the Congress MLA in the party, the Chief Minister on Monday said that he was a Congressman and “we will certainly consider all his wishes” in taking any decision.
Capt Amarinder said that he had known Sidhu since he was a two-year-old and had “no personal issues with him”.
To a question about Sidhu meeting the central party leadership on Punjab issues instead of raising these with the state leadership, the Chief Minister said, “He is welcome to discuss any issue with anyone in the party...If he has anything, which he would like to discuss, he is welcome.”
Sidhu, the previous month, had met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Delhi and apprised them of a roadmap for the “revival” of the Congress-ruled state "to its pristine glory".
Commenting on Sidhu's YouTube channel, Capt Amarinder said: “That is up to anybody. If I want to run a channel who can stop me.”
“WILL DEFINITELY CONTEST NEXT POLLS, STILL YOUNG ENOUGH”
Three years after he declared 2017 state assembly elections to be his last polls, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday asserted that he will be contesting the next assembly elections in the state. “I am still quite young. Do you think I’m too old to fight the polls,” quipped Capt Amarinder.
In 2018, Capt Amarinder had said that he would not hang up his boots until the State was taken out of the “mess”. In 2019, the scion of the erstwhile Patiala's royal family had said that he would not quit politics until Punjab's number one position was “restored”, and he might fight the next assembly polls, if needed.
DON’T GO BY KEJRIWAL’S DRAMA
Dismissing the power subsidy being given by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government in Delhi as a “drama” by Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister said that there was “no comparison” between Punjab and the national capital as the latter had no farmers or police to take care of.
Kejriwal had reduced domestic tariff through cross subsidy, he said, pointing out that the Punjab Government was already giving much higher subsidy than Delhi.