Navjot Sidhu ‘political mercenary’, divided Punjab Congress: Rana Gurjeet
Minister’s salvo comes a day after Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu said it was end of road for Rana Gurjeet
A fresh rift has broken out in the Punjab Congress with cabinet minister Rana Gurjeet Singh on Sunday lashing out at the state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu for trying to create divisions within the party and questioning the loyalty of true and traditional Congressmen.
Calling the state unit chief a “political mercenary” bereft of any principles or ideology, Rana said that Sidhu had joined the party with the sole purpose of becoming the chief minister. “It is an irony that someone who is basically a political party hopper and has not even spent five years in the party, is preaching and pontificating to people like us who have spent an entire lifetime in the service of the party,” the cabinet minister said in a stinging response to Sidhu’s remarks against him.
The cabinet minister’s full-blown attack on the PPCC chief came a day after the latter at a public meeting in Sultanpur Lodhi had said that it was the end of the road for Rana. Sidhu also backed Sultanpur Lodhi MLA Navtej Cheema with whom the minister has been having a continuous rift. Cheema was among the MLAs who had opposed Rana’s return to the state cabinet three months ago.
Taking a dig at Sidhu’s flip-flops, Rana claimed that keeping in mind Sidhu’s unstable and eccentric behaviour, nobody was sure whether he would stay in the Congress till the Vidhan Sabha elections or run off from the battle of ballot well before. “But sooner you leave, better it will be for the party as you have divided and damaged the party from within as if you were pursuing some hidden agenda of your ‘real’ political masters who are still pulling your strings,” Rana said.
The cabinet minister also questioned the intentions of Sidhu in opposing his own government and the chief minister, saying that he had now been exposed. “You have been openly criticising our chief minister as you have started feeling jealous and insecure about his popularity among the masses,” Rana said, warning Sidhu against weakening the party by trying to create divisions and fissures. “As party president, your key responsibility is to keep the party united, but you did not leave any stone unturned to create fissures in the campaign committee, manifesto committee, and screening committee constituted by the party high command,” he added. He also asked the PPCC chief to mind his language while talking about a true Congressman.
