The crisis in Punjab Congress has worsened. At a time when the internal strife was heading for a resolution, unconfirmed reports of the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu being made the State party president and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh threatening to resign in protest surfaced, resulting in political turmoil in the State.
Despite Amarinder Singh’s camp clarifying that the Chief Minister had not offered to resign and would lead the Congress to victory in the forthcoming Assembly elections, pandemonium reigned with a series of separate meetings being held by rival camps.
As the Congress high command is planning a bigger role for Sidhu, Amarinder seems to be in no mood to budge. Even as the available information suggested that the move to elevate Sidhu as the State party chief has Amarinder’s consent, Thursday’s developments indicate to the contrary.
It has been learnt that Amarinder conveyed his protest to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday over the decision to make Sidhu president of the State unit. Sources said the Chief Minister has made it clear to the party high command that the decision was “not acceptable” to him, and he would not contest the
2022 polls under Sidhu’s captainship.
At the same time, Amarinder’s media adviser Raveen Thukral took to Twitter to clarify that the Chief Minister has neither quit nor offered to do so.
“Media reports of Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh resigning are humbug. He has neither quit nor offered to do so. He’ll lead Punjab Congress to victory in 2022 Assembly polls as he did in 2017 (sic),” he said in a tweet.
On the other hand, a closed-door meeting was held between Sidhu, four Cabinet Ministers, and about 10 party legislators at the residence of Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. Sidhu went there hours after the reports of his appointment to the party’s top post broke.
Soon, Cabinet Ministers — Charanjit Singh Channi, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa also joined Pargat Singh, Barindermeet Singh Pahra, Kaka Lohgarh, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Kulbir Singh Zira, were among the legislators who participated in the meeting. Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa was also present.
All the Cabinet Ministers, who attended the meeting, were once Capt Amarinder’s loyalists.
On the other hand, Capt Amarinder also called an emergency meeting of his close MLAs, Ministers and MPs at his farmhouse at Siswan in Mohali. As many as 25 legislators, Ministers and parliamentarians reportedly joined the Chief Minister on the dinner table for discussing the next move. Available information suggests that the Delhi Durbar, after a lot of political churning spreading across over a month now, had arrived at a formulation according to which Sidhu would be appointed as PPCC president with two working presidents.
For the posts of two working president, the names of party’s prominent Hindu leader and Cabinet Minister Vijender Singla, and senior Dalit leader and Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary have been finalised . Both the leaders owe allegiance to Capt Amarinder.
Besides, Capt Amarinder has been chosen as the campaign committee chief — a post that usually goes to the party’s Chief Ministerial candidate, while his known critic Partap Singh Bajwa is expected to be appointed the party’s manifesto committee chairman.
The political churning in Punjab Congress unit began after the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab Harish Rawat, after meeting with party supremo Sonia Gandhi, said that Capt Amarinder Singh would continue to remain captain of the team and be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the party, while giving indications of Sidhu’s elevation.