Former minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday met Sunil Jakhar, the head of ruling Congress in Punjab, to seek his “guidance”. The meeting came amid reports that Sidhu could succeed Jakhar 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. Jakhar announced Singh will lead the party in next year’s assembly elections. The move was seen as an attempt to prevent efforts by the central leadership to rehabilitate Sidhu, who quit the state Cabinet two years ago.
{{/usCountry}}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. Jakhar announced Singh will lead the party in next year’s assembly elections. The move was seen as an attempt to prevent efforts by the central leadership to rehabilitate Sidhu, who quit the state Cabinet two years ago.
{{/usCountry}}Jakhar later criticised the chief minister for lack of political supervision in the case related to police firing on people protesting against the desecration of the Sikh scripture in 2015 after the high court quashed the probe report. Last month, he opposed Singh’s move to give jobs to sons of two Congress lawmakers on “compassionate ground”.