Friday, 16 July 2021 | Monika Malik | Chandigarh
The crisis in Punjab Congress has worsened. At a time when the internal strife was heading for a resolution, unconfirmed reports of the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu being made the State party president and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh threatening to resign in protest surfaced, resulting in political turmoil in the State.
Despite Amarinder Singh’s camp clarifying that the Chief Minister had not offered to resign and would lead the Congress to victory in the forthcoming Assembly elections, pandemonium reigned with a series of separate meetings being held by rival camps.
As the Congress high command is planning a bigger role for Sidhu, Amarinder seems to be in no mood to budge. Even as the available information suggested that the move to elevate Sidhu as the State party chief has Amarinder’s consent, Thursday’s developments indicate to the contrary.
It has been learnt that Amarinder conveyed his protest to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday over the decision to make Sidhu president of the State unit. Sources said the Chief Minister has made it clear to the party high command that the decision was “not acceptable” to him, and he would not contest the
2022 polls under Sidhu’s captainship.
At the same time, Amarinder’s media adviser Raveen Thukral took to Twitter to clarify that the Chief Minister has neither quit nor offered to do so.
