Amarinder-Sidhu row: Sonia forms Kharge-led panel to resolve Punjab Congress factionalism

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 28

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday constituted a committee of senior leaders to resolve the ongoing factionalism in Punjab Congress where Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and senior MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu are at daggers drawn.

The committee will be chaired by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and will have former Delhi MP JP Agarwal and AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Harish Rawat as members.

The first meeting of the panel will be held here tomorrow to finalise modalities of discussions and the way forward.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Harish Rawat said the principal aim of the committee was to strengthen the party organisation and the government in the run up to state elections next year and ensure that the Congress returned to power in Punjab in 2022.

“The primary mandate of the panel is to strengthen the government and the organisation in Punjab. We will meet the CM, the MLAs, MPs, state unit chief and perhaps also our candidates who lost the last elections to find out what needs to be done to boost Congress poll prospects, where are the weaknesses and what corrective steps need to be taken. We expect state leaders to henceforth air their grievances in party forums and not in public or through the media,” Rawat told The Tribune days after Sidhu and MLA Pargat Singh questioned the chief minister on the sacrilege issue.

The Congress general secretary said the panel would start meeting MLAs physically “any moment starting tomorrow”.

“We prefer physical meetings, not virtual,” Rawat said, adding that the panel was looking at an early resolution of issues.

The challenge for the committee would be to balance warring factions in the state.

Sidhu, who quit the Amarinder Singh Cabinet in July 2019 after being divested of local bodies portfolio, has been hoping for rehabilitation for a long time.

Of late Sidhu’s public criticism of the CM has led to senior Punjab ministers demanding disciplinary action against him.

The panel constituted by Sonia will need to reach a formulation that suits both the CM and Sidhu and brings everyone together in a critical election year.

A deputy chief ministerial berth for Sidhu is being seen as an option but top leaders feel there could be two deputy CMs for balance.

Sidhu is learnt to be keen on the presidency of state Congress unit, a post Sunil Jakhar holds.

The reconstitution of the entire Punjab Congress unit remains in a limbo due to lack of agreement on accommodation of Sidhu and people close to him.