Cong asks state leaders to hold negotiations with Sidhu

A SECTION OF LEADERS FEELS THAT PARTY LEADERSHIP MAY NOT YIELD TO SEVERAL DEMANDS MADE BY SIDHU

NEW DELHI: The Congress party has not accepted its Punjab unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu’s resignation and asked its state leaders to start negotiations with him while moving into a firefighting mode, said senior party leaders on Tuesday.

But a section feels that the party leadership might not yield to several demands made by Sidhu, whose abrupt resignation on Tuesday afternoon appeared to take the party by surprise.

The leaders pointed out that the appointment of Charanjit Singh Channi as the Punjab chief minister made it very difficult for Sidhu to bag the CM’S post in a post-election scenario. Punjab is scheduled to hold assembly elections early next year.

“Sidhu was high command’s choice as the Punjab unit president. While his resignation letter two months after he took charge, is an embarrassment, the party has decided to continue negotiations,” said a senior leader on condition of anonymity.

“At an appropriate time, the central leadership will intervene if and when it would be required,” added the leader. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was instrumental in Sidhu’s elevation as the party chief in Punjab on July 23, after months of tense struggle for control of the party with former chief minister Amarinder Singh.

The immediate provocation, according to the Congress functionaries, is the appointment of APS Deol as the advocate general of the state.

The decision created a political controversy last week with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) questioning the move as Deol was the counsel for a former Punjab director general of police Sumedh Singh Saini, who is embroiled in a 2015 police firing case on people protesting against the sacrilege of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book.

Sidhu had made the sacrilege cases a central plank of his attack on former CM Singh.

“But clearly, his larger goals and ambitions for unbridled power in Punjab has been cut short,” said a second senior leader involved in the Punjab developments. “Sidhu has been named as the Punjab unit chief and his arch rival Captain Amarinder Singh has been removed as the CM. But it doesn’t guarantee that he will be the CM in the next elections,” said the leader.

“It is clear that the party will face election with Channi as its face. Also the deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa getting the important home department portfolio didn’t go down well with Sidhu’s camp. If there is any need to elevate a Sikh face, Randhawa will also be in the reckoning,” said a third leader, requesting anonymity. Sidhu’s resignation came roughly three hours after Channi announced the portfolio allocation on Tuesday.

Congress functionaries also added that party president Sonia Gandhi conveyed to the leaders that while Amarinder Singh resigned from the CM’S post, it is not necessary to remove all his loyalists from key posts in the government. Sonia prefers to maintain a balance between two sides ahead of the elections, according to the functionaries.

But a section of the Congress party is irked at the way Sidhu resigned from his post.

“He shouldn’t have resigned in such a manner and that too, hours before the Congress planned to induct Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani,” the second leader quoted above said.