Punjab Congress is all set to witness a crucial Monday. With two of its major players — Cabinet Ministers Navjot Singh Sidhu and OP Soni — out of the pavilion, the “captain” Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh may eventually take a decision on Monday. The day is also significant as party’s senior leader Ahmed Patel is scheduled to visit the state capital on Monday to resolve the prevailing power struggle between the state’s top leadership.
After the recent Cabinet reshuffle exercise on June 6, Sidhu and Soni — unhappy with the allocation of new portfolios — are yet to assume the charge of their new departments even after 10 days of the decision.
While Sidhu was divested of Local Government and Tourism departments and handed over Power and New and Renewable Energy, Soni was given Medical Education and Research, Freedom Fighter and Food Processing Departments after taking away Education from him.
Capt Amarinder had set Monday as the deadline for his Ministers to take charge of their new Ministries. Now with Sidhu and Soni virtually revolting to take over the new departments, Chief Minister may take a decision on them. It has been learnt that the Chief Minister is considering to take the working of these departments under him “till the time these Ministers do not take charge”.
Reports are that the Chief Minister, if not Monday, would take a tough stand on the two Ministers in case they continue to maintain the rebelling attitude.
Sidhu, making the re-allocation of portfolios as an issue of prestige, has taken the issue right up to the party high command, which has reportedly asked the former cricketer to continue working for the party. Despite that, Sidhu has not take over his Department. In fact, no effort was being made to appease Sidhu by the state leadership with no leader or even the Chief Minister contacting him.
Having difference of opinion on various issues, the wrangling between the Chief Minister and Sidhu escalated in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections when the former cricketer’s wife had accused Capt Amarinder of playing a role in denying her the party ticket from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. While Capt Amarinder rubbished the charges, Sidhu maintained that his wife would “never lie”.
The slugfest reached another high with Sidhu talking about “friendly match” between the Congress and Akali leaders a day before elections, besides attacking his own government for not punishing the Badals for sacrilege incidents — a development that divided the Congress party vertically with Sidhu on one side and remaining on the other.
On the day of election results, the Chief Minister had minced no words to blame Sidhu for the party’s defeat in Bathinda and other urban pockets, for more than one reason.
Dubbing Sidhu as the “non-performing” Minister, Capt Amarinder had pointed that the former cricketer’s “friendly match” remarks in Bathinda had cost the party dear, besides his “yaari and jhappi” (friendship and hugs) with the Pakistani Army Chief that failed to go down well with the people of the border state, while at the same time maintaining that he intended to change his portfolio.
On the other hand, Sidhu had all along defended his performance as the Local Bodies Minister claiming that his Department had done exceedingly well during his two-year tenure.
In fact, Sidhu skipped the crucial Cabinet meeting — first after the 2019 general elections — following which the decision on reshuffle was taken. Sidhu had addressed a simultaneous press conference claiming that the Congress has fared well in the urban areas winning 63 percent of the total urban and semi-urban areas, winning 34 out of 54 seats.
With both sides refusing to bow down, the party chief Rahul Gandhi has assigned the task to resolve the internal strife between the two top leaders to party veteran Ahmed Patel who is scheduled to visit Chandigarh on Monday.
Earlier, Capt Amarinder was expected to meet Patel in the national capital this weekend. But being unwell, the Chief Minister could not visit New Delhi to attend Niti Aayog meeting and also to meet the high command.
Available information suggests that Sidhu is eyeing a bigger role in the party, especially when he enjoys proximity with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
Besides Sidhu, Soni was also not keen to take over his new departments, and is silently protesting the Chief Minister’s decision. He had argued that during his tenure as Education Minister, the Department witnessed significant improvement with government schools recording pass percentage of 88.21 percent outshining the private schools which registered 86 pass percentage which has happened for the first time in 30 years.