CM Amarinder to meet Sonia today amid Punjab infighting

Chandigarh: Punjab chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday amid efforts by the party’s central leadership to resolve factionalism in the party’s state unit ahead of the assembly polls due early next year

Chandigarh: Punjab chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is to meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday amid efforts by the party’s central leadership to resolve factionalism in the party’s state unit ahead of the assembly polls due early next year.

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Singh is to leave for Delhi from Chandigarh in the morning and call on the Congress president late in the afternoon, people familiar with the matter said. The chief minister was in Delhi twice last month to meet the three-member central panel constituted under Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge to review at the crisis in Punjab, but did not get to meet any of the Gandhis. He had sought time from the Congress president who has now called him for a discussion, according to the people cited above. The panel met lawmakers from Punjab, including the chief minister’s bete noire Navjot Singh Sindhu, who resigned as minister in Singh’s cabinet in XXXXXX and has since emerged a vocal critic of the chief minister.

The CM’s meeting with Sonia comes days after Sidhu, who has been openly critical and dismissive of Singh, met former party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Sidhu has been counting on the two Gandhis for support in his standoff with the two-time chief minister. The fact that Sidhu got to meet the Gandhis raised some eyebrows; the three-member panel is believed to have given Singh a to-do list, which includes implementing poll promises from 2017.

“Tuesday’s meeting is an indication that discussions on resolving the rift in Punjab Congress have entered the phase of final decision-making on how to accommodate Sidhu,” said a senior state leader who did not want to be identified. While Sidhu wants to head the Punjab Congress, the chief minister is opposed to having him in that role. Sidhu resigned from the BJP in 2016 and after almost joining the Aam Aadmi Party, moved to the Congress. He is believed to be close to Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, a proximity he has not been shy about advertising.

All India Congress Committee general secretary in-charge Punjab affairs Harish Rawat, on June 24, stated that the Congress president would take a decision on the issues by July 8-10. While Sidhu is back in Patiala, his continued attacks on the chief minister and the state government on the ongoing power crisis and power purchase agreements (PPAs) have left some of his party colleagues confounded and some of them are apprehensive about the rift worsening in case there is no quick decision.