Focus on your area, help people: Preneet to Sidhu
Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s detractors continued to target him before the three-member committee set up by the Congress to resolve the infighting in the party even as his MP wife Preneet Kaur advised former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu to focus on his assembly constituency and help fight coronavirus.
Preneet, who met the central panel headed by leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi on Wednesday, said that Sidhu has the responsibility to look after his constituency during the pandemic. “He needs to put in strong effort to ensure that his area and Punjab are safe. If he has any grievances, he should take them up with the chief minister and the party high command,” she told reporters after her one-onone meeting with the committee on the day posters surfaced in Amritsar that Sidhu was “missing” from his assembly constituency. All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat and former MP Jai Prakash Agarwal are the other members of the committee.
The Patiala MP’s subtle dig at Sidhu came a day after he stuck to his guns before the central team. The former minister has not been seen in his area for weeks and is spending much of
his time in the chief minister’s assembly constituency, Patiala.
Sidhu, who has consistently accused Amarinder of shielding the Badal family and blamed him for the botched-up probe in the Kotkapura police firing case, had told the media after his oneon-one meeting on Tuesday that his stand remains unchanged.
Capt Amarinder to meet panel today
Amarinder is scheduled to meet the central committee, which has already held meetings with most ministers, MPs, MLAs and other party leaders over the past three days, on Thursday. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has also been calling up the state leaders, including ministers and MLAs, for direct feedback on the internal fight in the
state unit. Preneet was among the 30-odd party leaders, including cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, Rajya Sabha MPs Partap Singh Bajwa and Shamsher Singh Dullo, MLA Surjit Singh Dhiman and Kulbir Singh Zira and former state unit president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, who met the panel.
Detractors speak their mind
Bajwa conveyed to the committee that party workers in Punjab were feeling demoralised because they had been ignored and power was concentrated in the hands of bureaucrats. “The party needed to make the chief minister get rid of retired bureaucrats appointed in government organisations and appoint party leaders in their
place, remove the advocate general, and correct the case combination by giving adequate representation to SC, OBC and Hindu leaders in the cabinet and other key positions to galvanise the cadres,” he said during his 45-minute meeting with the panel.
Dullo also alleged political patronage to mining, transport and liquor mafia in the state, claiming that a large number of party MLAs and other leaders have direct or indirect business interests in these sectors.
“Traditional Congress leaders have been sidelined and partyhoppers from SAD and other political parties were being promoted. Similarly, Hindu leadership is also on the margins in the party now,” he said after the meeting.