CHANDIGARH: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu who had resigned from the Punjab Cabinet is now likely to be appointed as the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), after the demise of former Chief Minister Sheela Dixit.
The assembly elections in the national capital are a few months away and BJP and AAP have already started their campaigning.
Sources close to Sidhu said that the party might take a call on this very soon as it is learnt that the former Punjab minister had met party's general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra some time back, where he was reportedly offered this new position and was given time to think about it. Now he has informed the party high command that he is ready for this new role.
Sidhu had been spending most of his time at his Amritsar residence after his resignation from the Punjab cabinet as he had been at loggerheads with the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for quite some time now.
The state Congress leaders including sitting Cabinet ministers who were very vocal against Sidhu a few weeks back have suddenly gone silent as they do not want to annoy him further. Sidhu had started talking to the local leaders and his supporters in Amritsar and clearly told that he will stay in Congress.
These leaders are also aware of the fac that Sidhu is close to Gandhi family. Second rung party leaders who had earlier maintained distance from Sidhu had now started visiting him, said sources.
Sources added that Amritsar MLA Raj Kumar Verka, also the Chairman of Punjab Warehousing Corporation who was recently given the status of a Cabinet minister had a 'courtesy' call with Sidhu at the latter's residence.
The Ministerial office allotted to Sidhu on the fifth floor of the Punjab Secretariat has now been re-allotted to Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bharat Bhusan Ashu. Interestingly both Ashu and Sidhu were on loggerheads.