Written by Manoj C G
, Kanchan Vasdev
| Chandigarh, New Delhi |
Updated: July 19, 2021 3:14:07 am
The official announcement appointing Navjot Singh Sidhu because the Punjab PCC chief got here after a day of tensions, with him and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh each attempting to drum up help towards one another.
Amarinder and his bête noire and Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa appeared to have joined arms to stall Sidhu’s elevation, holding conferences late Saturday and on Sunday afternoon.
Bajwa additionally held a gathering of all of the Congress Lok Sabha MPs at his residence, the place they resolved to oppose Sidhu’s appointment. While Bajwa mentioned he was not within the race for Chief Minister or PCC president, a put up he has occupied prior to now, the anti-Sidhu camp was mentioned to be propping up his identify with Amarinder’s tacit blessings. Bajwa tweeted after the assembly although that that they had talked about farmers’ points.
Besides, 10 MLAs from the pro-Amarinder camp (out of the Congress’s 80 within the House), together with three AAP-turned-Congress leaders, launched a press release asking the excessive command to not “let down” the CM and backed his demand that Sidhu ought to tender a public apology for posting “numerous tweets” towards him. While admitting Sidhu was a celeb and “no doubt an asset to the party”, they mentioned his “condemning and criticising his own party and government in the public view has only created a rift in the cadres and weakened it”.
They hoped the excessive command would “definitely keep in mind the status, contribution and background of Captain Amarinder Singh in mind while making vital decisions for the party”.
Simultaneously, incumbent Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar known as a gathering of district Congress presidents and MLAs Monday, saying it might ship a sign that they stood with the excessive command. Jakhar mentioned the assembly was known as at his initiative and never on the central management’s behest. The assembly was cancelled after Sidhu’s appointment.
Some of the MPs who attended the assembly at Bajwa’s residence confirmed receiving calls from Sonia Gandhi, together with Shamsher Singh Dullo. “I told her that if two Jat Sikh leaders (Amarinder and Sidhu) occupy top positions in the Congress, what will the Dalits feel?”
The different MPs current on the Bajwa assembly included Amarinder’s spouse Preneet Kaur, Manish Tewari (mentioned to be among the many PCC chief hopefuls), Ravneet Singh Bittu, Jasbir Singh Gill, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Amar Singh, Mohammad Sadique and Santokh Singh Chaudhary. Rajya Sabha MP from the state Ambika Soni stayed away.
One of the MPs advised The Indian Express — earlier than information got here of Sidhu’s appointment — that they anticipated the excessive command to not impose a president on the state unit.
However, different senior leaders like Amarinder’s Cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and former Union minister Ashwani Kumar suggested partymen to line up behind the excessive command. Tript Rajinder, who had earlier backed Amarinder towards Sindhu, urged the CM to “forget Sidhu’s tweets like he had forgotten Partap (Bajwa)’s tweets and letters of last four and half years”.
Ashwani Kumar suggested partymen to “gracefully” settle for the choice of the excessive command to nominate Sidhu within the curiosity of unity. “There are no victors or losers. Reconciliation is the way forward .All Congress persons will, hopefully, have a role to play in fighting an ideological battle… It is necessary to ensure that no one feels diminished.”