Sidhu takes battle with Capt to Delhi, meets party prez

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 10

There is no let-up in the ongoing cold war between Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu with the actor-politician taking the fight to Delhi and flagging his concerns to the party leadership today.

Sidhu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party veteran Ahmed Patel here and is said to have spoken of being “unfairly singled out” in the recent Cabinet reshuffle.

Capt Amarinder, citing Congress’ poor show in the state’s urban segments, divested Sidhu of Local Bodies portfolio in the Cabinet rejig last week and handed him the Power Department.

Sidhu hasn’t taken charge of the new department and is arguing that his performance was very much up to the mark. The minister’s point before Gandhis was that the party’s LS poll losses in urban Assembly segments were more a reflection on local ministers’ individual images than anything else. He is learnt to have said that the Local Bodies Department raised Rs 10,000 crore under his charge and when the time came to utilise this revenue, his department was shuffled.

In his letter, Sidhu defended his performance in Local Bodies mentioning that the Congress won 34 of 54 urbanand semi-urban Punjab Assembly segments in the recent LS polls (63 per cent success rate); 16 of the 25 purely urban segments as against only 35 of the 63 rural segments (55 per cent success).

Sidhu also flagged that though the CM said before the elections that ministers who failed to secure Congress wins in their respective MLA segments would have to quit, many continued in the Cabinet, some were even rewarded.

Names mentioned in this category include those of ministers Shyam Sunder Arora, Manpreet Badal and Vijay Inder Singla.

“I was singled out,” was the crux of Sidhu’s case before the Congress leadership, which is learnt to have asked him to wait for some time. Ahmed Patel may be asked to try and resolve the matter.

AICC incharge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari said, “It is the prerogative of every Congress leader to meet the Congress president. I have no comments to make on this matter.”

Though the Punjab Congress hopes Sidhu would assume charge of power ministry, the latter appears to be in no rush to relent.

Tweets picture after meeting Gandhis

Following his meeting with the Gandhis, Sidhu posted his picture with them on Twitter saying, “Met the Congress President, handed him my letter, appraised him of the situation!”