Sidhu meets Punjab Cong chief amid buzz of revamp in state unit
CM Amarinder terms meeting with Harish Rawat ‘fruitful’; Sidhu calls on Jakhar to seek ‘guidance’
CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu met Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sunil Jakhar and several MLAs on Saturday, a day after the cricketer-turned-politician met party president Sonia Gandhi amid rising tensions in the party over the cricketer-turnedpolitician’s factional fight with chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
After the meeting with Jakhar, which lasted more than half-an-hour, Sidhu said he is his elder brother and a guiding force. Jakhar, in turn, described Sidhu as a capable man.
Sidhu also met other party leaders, including some ministers, in Chandigarh.
Sidhu’s meeting with Gandhi on Friday was also attended by party leader Rahul Gandhi. There have been speculations about Sidhu being appointed the state unit chief overriding objections by the chief minister.
Officially, Gandhi is yet to take a call on the role of Sidhu, around whom the opposition to Singh has coalesced and grown in recent months.
Singh is bitterly opposed to Sidhu’s elevation as party chief and has publicly advocated for a Hindu face for the post.
On Friday, the chief minister wrote to the party chief and expressed displeasure at the party’s handling of infighting in the state unit, signalling an escalation in the crisis engulfing the party months before the state is set to go to polls.
NEW DELHIC: Congress’s Punjab affairs in-charge Harish Rawat met chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Mohali, even as his rival and trenchant critic, Navjot Singh Sidhu, called on incumbent Congress president for state unit, Sunil Jakhar, in Panchkula amid hectic parleys on Saturday to resolve the crisis engulfing the party months before polls.
On Saturday, Rawat flew to Chandigarh at around 12 noon, from where he headed straight to Singh’s farmhouse in Mohali to meet him. “Had a fruitful meeting with @harishrawatcmuk. Reiterated that any decision of @INCIndia President will be acceptable to all. Raised certain issues which he said he’ll take up with @INCIndia President,” Singh’s media advisor Raveen Thukral tweeted, quoting the chief minister as saying after meeting Rawat, who is on the three-member panel formed by Gandhi to settle the dispute between Singh and Sidhu.
On returning to Delhi after meeting Singh, the AICC general secretary expressed happiness that “several matters that were being discussed outside” have turned to be worthless after talking to the chief minister.
“Captain saab has repeated his stand that he will accept and respect whatever decision the Congress President takes in the matter of the Punjab Congress chief’s position,” Rawat tweeted in Hindi, thanking the CM.
Meanwhile, amid talk of his takeover as state Congress chief, Sidhu, too, held a series of meetings.
“Seeking guidance of Presidents of the illustrious Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee... Conversations with wise men, worth months of Education!!” the cricketer-turned-politician tweeted, sharing photos with various leaders, including Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar, the man he is tipped to replace.
On Friday, Singh wrote a letter to Gandhi, warning her against appointing Sidhu as Punjab Congress chief as this could have an “adverse impact” on the party’s prospects in the northern state, where assembly elections are likely to take place early next year.
Reportedly, the three-member committee suggested Sidhu be tasked with heading the state unit as a means to pacify him. Mallikarjun Kharge and JP Aggarwal are the other two members of the panel. In recent days, the two leaders have appeared before them to present their respective case.
In the 2017 punjab assembly elections, the Congress registered a thumping win, returning to power with 77 seats in the 117member legislative assembly. It increased its tally from 46 in the 2012 polls, and also displaced the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance from power.
Meanwhile, Sidhu’s meeting with Jhakar came amid reports that Sidhu could succeed the latter as the Punjab Congress president to resolve infighting in the party’s state unit.
The 45-minute meeting took place at Jakhar’s residence in Panchkula. “He (Jakhar) is an elder brother and a guiding force,” Sidhu told reporters. Jakhar called Sidhu a very capable person who does not need any guidance. “We are all together.”
The meeting came on the day Congress’s Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat arrived in Chandigarh to meet chief minister Amarinder Singh, who has opposed Sidhu’s elevation.
HT on Saturday reported Singh wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday expressing displeasure at the party’s handling of infighting.
The letter referred to resentment brewing in the state unit. It cautioned his rival Sidhu’s appointed as the Punjab Congress chief could split the party.
Singh’s letter was delivered to Gandhi before she met Sidhu on Friday. It came after two days of meetings and speculation about rapprochement between the rival factions in the Punjab Congress.
Congress leaders on Thursday said that broad contours of a revamp plan have been drafted. They indicated the crisis, which first surfaced in May, was far from over.
The Sidhu camp is confident of his appointment. Jakhar has been president of the state Congress since May 2017 when the party returned to power in Punjab. He was considered close to Singh and launched the latter’s re-election campaign in February 2021.