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Cold war ends as CM Amarinder Singh and Navjot Sidhu meet, sip tea together
The meeting ended the speculations around Amarinder Singh's presence at the event where Sidhu will be formally handed over the reins of the Congress party's Punjab unit.
Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday met Navjot Singh Sidhu at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh ahead of a ceremony to appoint the cricketer-turned-politician as the chief of the Congress' state unit, signalling a thaw in the relationship between the two leaders.
The meeting ended the speculations around Amarinder Singh's presence at the event where Sidhu will be formally handed over the reins of the Congress party's Punjab unit. Shortly after the two leaders who were embroiled in bitter infighting met, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the 'Punjab crisis' has been resolved.
The leaders, swarmed with other party leaders, were seen exchanging few words as Singh looked and pointed at his watch while speaking to Sidhu.
Singh on Thursday invited the party's MLAs, MPs and senior functionaries from the state for high-tea.
Even though Sidhu arrived at the venue first, he left for a brief period after Amarinder Singh reached Punjab Bhawan. He later rejoined the gathering and went into the room to greet the Punjab chief minister. Both the leaders then sat together for a tea alongside All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat. Senior Congress leaders Manish Tewari, Partap Singh Bajwa and Lal Singh were also present.
The two leaders managed to reach a truce and the first signs emerged on Thursday when two of the four newly-appointed working presidents of the state, Congress Kuljit Singh Nagra and Sangat Singh Gilzian, extended a formal invite to the chief minister at his farmhouse in Mohali's Siswan for the Friday's ceremony. The invitation letter was signed by more than 55 legislators.
Additionally, Sidhu also reached out to Amarinder Singh, asking him to join the installation ceremony and said that he had no "personal agenda", reported PTI.
The party witnessed the first step marking the end of the "Punjab crisis" after Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday appointed Sidhu as the new president of the party's Punjab unit.
Tensions between the two Congress's stalwarts in Punjab soared in April after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a probe report into the 2015 Kotkapura police firing incident.
Sidhu attacked the chief minister through his tweets over the issue of alleged delay in justice in the 2015 sacrilege and subsequent police-firing incidents.
