Punjab CM’s group want Sidhu to seek public apology. Badly annoyed over his appointment as state chief

The Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh and his group’s lawmakers, ministers and party office bearers antagonised over the decision of appointing prominent cricketer n former minister Navjyot Singh Sidhu as the state party chief, may take some strong decision against the central High command reveal sources.

After hectic deliberations with Captain Amrinder Singh and two rounds of interactions with Navjyot Singh Sidhu in the presence of national general secretary and Punjab incharge Harish Rawat, the interim party chief had just a day ago formally issued a letter of appointment to Navjyot Singh Sidhu creating quite a furore and disenchantment in the chief ministers camp with majority of MLAs n ministers not able to bear this appointment despite earlier reports that Captain Amrinder Singh has accepted Sonia Gandhi’s decision for nominating Sidhu as the state party chief.

Captain Amrinder Singh’s camp was in favour of a hindu candidate as state president to maintain a balance and his supporter senior Congress leader and advocate Manish Tiwari has in his tweet given the statistics in this regard to convince Sonia Gandhi, few days ago, that it is necessary to appoint a hindu nominee than a Sikh to balance the Sikh Hindu community equilibrium.

However, the Sidhu protagonists said that this formula has been derived to keep him out of the post of state president but it couldn’t work and Sonia Gandhi finally appointed Sidhu as state chief finally putting a lid on the protracted controversy.

It is believed that Punjab Incharge and observer Harish Rawat played a vital role in this regard who had been trying his level best to pacify Captain Amrinder Singh by recently visiting Chandigarh n meeting Sidhu number of times earlier to come to an amicable settlement.

The election of Punjab are just six months ago and the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has already announced a “freebies” of giving three months free electricity to consumers up to 300 units if it comes to power, enticing good number of state electorates in its favour.

Coming back to Congress crisis, Captain Amrinder Singh who has resurrected the Congress party in Punjab after 1984 riots and returned to power in the state when the party lost everywhere in 2017 state elections, is today extremely pinched after his strong opponent Sidhu had been nominated the state chief despite his strong reservations.

Captain Amrinder Singh’s followers have asked the central leadership to ask Sidhu to seek public apology from him and till he does not do so, he will not accept him as the state Congress president.

According to the latest news, majority of the MLAs of the state belonging to Congress have revealed that Sidhu’s appointment as the party chief has closed all the options of party winning at the hustings. However, they are still confident that under Captain’s dynamic leadership the Congress party will stage a come back for sure.

It may be recalled that since the days of former prime minister Indira Gandhi in almost all the Congress ruled states relationship between Chief Ministers n state presidents have been at loggerheads with both later on coming to the prime minister who also used to be party chief to seek justice as children come to their teachers. Finally the decisions to resolve the crisis n change the state chiefs n chief Ministers etc were left to the central leadership. The same trend is continuing till date. The Punjab chief’s name has also been referred to earlier as the fittest candidate for the party president but was not accepted.

Pic : Tribune India