New Delhi: The Congress panel tasked with Punjab affairs met chief minister Amarinder Singh even as Rahul Gandhi met a group of state leaders amid growing differences between the CM and dissident leader Navjot Sidhu who has been making vituperative attacks on Singh.
The party’s Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat told reporters that Sidhu has tremendous potential and also a following. However, on being asked, he said he was angry with the timing of Sidhu’s outburst. He also urged Sidhu to exercise patience. The CM is learnt to have expressed displeasure over Sidhu's comments in his meeting with the Mallikarjun Kharge panel. However, Congress sources said the discussions with Singh were not limited to dissidence but were now focused on the party strategy for polls, election promises still to be fulfilled and reorganisation of the party and the government in the state.
What seems to have confounded Congress leaders is Sidhu’s acerbic attack on Singh coinciding with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s visit to Punjab and his announcement that AAP will “project a popular Sikh face” as its CM candidate.
Cong leaders meet Rahul
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jhakhar, finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Singh Bajwa met Rahul Gandhi to apprise him of the situation after infighting escalated in the state. “Hope that the current situation will be resolved. Some wrong people are advising the CM on the decision of jobs to kin of MLAs,” Jakhar said after the meeting.
Pratap Singh Bajwa, another bete noire of Singh, also met Rahul and said he had discussed “the ground reality and current political situation in the state”. He asserted that “the party high command will take decision over the chief ministerial candidate for next assembly elections”.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will resolve all issues related to the Punjab unit by early July and a united party will fight the next assembly elections in the state, Rawat said after meeting Rahul. Rahul has stepped in to defuse the tension in the state unit as he met several leaders, including Pargat Singh.
