Punjab turmoil now a political storm for Cong

NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: A party in disarray in a poll-bound state. A defiant state unit chief rebuffing the party’s overtures. A snubbed former chief minister meeting a top political rival. And, senior leaders publicly voicing differences with the leadership, prompting protests by others in the same party.

The Congress’s troubles in Punjab spilled over to Delhi on Wednesday as former chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union home minister Amit Shah and leaders upped their pitch for organisational changes, a day after state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu’s abrupt resignation plunged the party into crisis.

Singh, who had denied talk of him visiting Shah a day ago, drove to the home minister’s residence around 6pm for a meeting that lasted less than an hour.

The event stoked speculation that Singh, who resigned as CM last week after a months-long tussle with Sidhu and complained he was humiliated by the party leadership, could join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or seek its support.

But Singh said the meeting focused on the ongoing farm agitation against three central laws. “Met Union home minister Amit Shah ji in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers agitation and urged him to resolve the crisis urgently,” he tweeted.

A senior BJP functionary said a section of the party felt Singh could resolve the standoff

between the government and protesting farmers, but added that nothing was finalised. The Congress accused Shah and the BJP of trying to take revenge. “Amit Shah’s residence is the hub of anti-dalit politics,”said party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, referring to the Punjab’s new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit.

“Not ji huzoor 23”

The Congress’s woes in Punjab, where the party was well-placed to fight the February-march assembly polls before factionalism erupted in May, prompted a