CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said he took back his resignation and would return to his duties as the chief of state Congress when Punjab got a new police chief and advocate general. He claimed that under his leadership, Congress would win 80 to 100 seats in the upcoming Assembly elections.
Sidhu had announced stepping down from the post of Punjab Congress president on September 28.
Signalling a change of mind, Sidhu said he would return to his duties once the state got a new DGP and advocate general.
“I have taken back my resignation as Punjab Congress president and I categorically state that the day new advocate general will be appointed and the shortlisted panel of three names for Punjab DGP will come from the UPSC, I will take charge of my office. It was not any personal ego,” he said.
“During the last four and half years I have raised many issues such as liquor, buses, etc. The CM had centralised power but didn’t take any action. I don’t have greed for any post but I will fight for Punjab people’s rights. I will make sure that Congress wins 80 to 100 seats in the Assembly elections next year,” he said.
He further said that 50 days had passed since the new government was formed but nothing had been done in the direction of sacrilege and drugs issues. Sidhu, however, stated that he had no differences with new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
Questioning the intent of his party’s government in delivering justice in the sacrilege and drugs cases, Sidhu said the AG and DGP were two important officers to take up these issues and their removal was a demand of the party.
“I have been reminding the new CM about these issues. When one CM replaced another this year, what was the AICC’s mandate?” he said and added, “What’s the point of replacing Capt Amarinder Singh if the core issues are still unaddressed.”
Sidhu had resigned from the post on September 28, triggering a fresh crisis in the party's Punjab unit as it prepares for the next assembly polls.
But days later, Congress leaders indicated he would continue with the responsibility that was given to him amid his power tussle with the then CM Amarinder Singh.
"At the start, I want to say that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi's soldier has taken back his resignation," Sidhu told a press conference.
"I have taken back my resignation. And I categorically state that the day a new Advocate General is appointed, I will assume charge," he said.
He also said he will assume charge of the party post the day the panel for the appointment of the new Director General of Police is appointed.
Sidhu has opposed the appointment of state Advocate General A P S Deol and Director General of Police Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, considered as Channi's choices.
He had earlier indicated that these two appointments were part of the reason he quit.
Sahota had headed the SIT formed by the previous SAD-BJP government to probe incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.
And as a lawyer, Deol had represented former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, who headed the state police six years ago during the incidents of sacrilege and a police firing on protesters.
It is not any personal ego, Sidhu said, arguing that the offices of the AG and the DGP are crucial to take the Bargari sacrilege and drug trafficking cases to their logical conclusions.
Firing a salvo against his own government, Sidhu said all he was asking was what the Channi government has done in the past 50 days on the sacrilege case and on making a special task force report on drug cases public.
"I say if you don't have the guts to make the STF report public, give it to the party and I will make it public. I have the guts," he said.
After three special investigation teams, seven FIRs, two commissions of inquiry and six years after the sacrilege case, were these the only officers the state government could find, Sidhu taunted.
He said DGP Sahota was the previous police chief Sumedh Singh Saini's favourite.
"That blue eyed boy becomes the DGP of Punjab. That is the big question, it is not my question, but one of people of Punjab," he said.
Sidhu said the party will not be able to face the people on the sacrilege and the drugs issue.
The Congress had come to power in 2017, promising action on these issues, he said.
Replying to a question, the actor-turned-politician insisted that he did not have any differences with Channi.
"I have been talking to him. I speak to him for the state, for all the good that can be done for the state. I have no differences with Charanjit Channi. I stand for Punjab, which is my soul, that's all," he said.
"I am not angry with anyone, I just raise issues, I raise the voice of people of Punjab," he said.
He also claimed that his recent remarks about tall promises on power supply and employment were targeted at Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, and not Channi.
He accused former chief minister Amarinder Singh of centralising power and "using" officers.
Sidhu said people elect a leader they love and insisted that he does not hanker for power.
"I gave up posts. I was given big offers, but I rejected all those for Punjab's sake," he said, referring to the time when he was with the BJP.
Sidhu's detractors claim that he is looking at the possibility of becoming CM if the Congress returns to power in the state after the assembly polls just months away.
(With PTI Inputs)