CHANDIGARH: Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday said he would always stand by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, irrespective of whether or not he held a post in the party. “Will uphold principles of Gandhi Ji & Shastri Ji…Post or No Post will stand by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi! Let all negative forces try to defeat me, but with every ounce of positive energy will make Punjab win, Punjabiyat (Universal Brotherhood) win & every Punjabi win!!” he tweeted on Saturday.
Sidhu had resigned as PPCC chief on Tuesday as he was not happy with certain appointments in the new government. While he is yet to withdrawn his resignation despite the high command not accepting it, there is unrest in the state cabinet as Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Rural Development and Panchayat Minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa, who were involved in toppling the Amarinder Singh government, are reportedly not comfortable with Sidhu.
Sources said that senior Congress leader Harish Chaudhary, who met Randhawa and Bajwa to resolve the deadlock, could not break the ice. Both these ministers, who earlier sided with Sidhu, are apparently unhappy ove r h i s ‘interference’. Reportedly, when the panel of names was recently sent to the UPSC for shortlisting the names for appointment as DGP, Randhawa was not kept in the loop. Also, two other newly appointed ministers, Pargat Singh and Sangat Singh Gilzian from the Doaba region are also not on the same page on several key issues.
Congress imbued with sense of comic theatrics: Amarinder
Amarinder Singh slammed Congress for trying to cover up its mishandling of the Punjab crisis. On R S Surjewala’s claim that 78 of the 79 Congress MLAs had written to the leadership seeking Amarinder’s ouster, the former CM retorted, “It seems the entire party has become imbued with Navjot Singh Sidhu’s sense of comic theatrics. Next they will claim that 117 MLAs wrote to them against me!”