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CM may meet Congress leadership in Delhi amid Punjab infighting
Earlier this week, Navjot Singh Sidhu met Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and presented his side.
Days after the lunch diplomacy, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh is all set to meet Congress high command in Delhi next week in order to resolve the ongoing crisis in the party’s state unit, said sources.
The discussion will be held between the top leadership and Captain Amarinder Singh to clear the formula to accommodate Navjot Singh Sidhu and to end the crisis. Although the final date of the meeting is not decided yet,” a close aide of Amarinder Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Earlier this week, Navjot Singh Sidhu met Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and presented his side. Other senior leaders of the Punjab Congress had also held marathon meetings with Rahul Gandhi for four days in Delhi.
Ahead of assembly elections in Punjab next year, tensions between Singh and Sidhu, which have been simmering since 2019, have added to the problems facing the Congress. Their bitterness mounted in May after the government suffered a legal setback in a 2015 case of police firing on a crowd protesting the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. A three-member panel, formed to resolve the crisis, submitted its report to party chief Sonia Gandhi on June 10.
According to people familiar with the development, current PCC Chief Sunil Jakhar is all set to be replaced. Captain openly played his cards through the lunch diplomacy after which it was said that a Hindu leader should be given the chance to lead the party in the state. It is assumed that this is being done to counter Sidhu for the post.
