Amarinder, Sidhu at each other’s throats again, month after peace pact

Amid the running feud between Punjab Chief Minister Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, 23 party MLAs, including 3 ministers, are learnt to have sought the Chief Minister’s resignation. This was matched by Amarinder Singh loyalists – five ministers and one MLA –  demanding action against Sidhu’s advisors who courted controversy with their recent comments.

“Captain should be replaced else the Congress won’t survive… we will meet Sonia Gandhi over the issue,” said cabinet minister Tript Singh Bajwa, reports ndtv.com. This slanging match comes a month after the Congress central leadership thought they had put a lid on the feud between the warring leaders in the poll-bound state. Sidhu had taken over as PCC chief on July 24 as part of a peace formula brokered by the Gandhis. 

Also read: What has ‘Devi Shakti’ got to do with evacuation from Afghanistan? Read here

The rebel group, according to The Times of India, held a meeting in Chandigarh and decided to send a 5-member delegation to meet Congress top brass to seek a change in leadership. The Punjab legislative assembly is 117-strong, of which 80 seats are held by the Congress, AAP with 16 seats is the second largest party, BJP has 12 and SAD 14, rest are with smaller parties and Independents

The ‘rebellion’ comes days after, two advisers of Sidhu — Malvinder Singh Mali and Pyare Lal Garg — came under severe attack from within the party on Monday for their controversial remarks on Kashmir and Afghanistan, with Congress MP Manish Tewari asking if such people should be kept in the party at all.

Also read: ‘Bholi si surat…’: Faridabad police go creative with SRK song and bike theft

Perturbed by the  comments, Amarinder Singh had asked Sidhu to rein in his advisors. Following this, Sidhu summoned both to his Patiala residence on Monday, but it was not immediately known what was decided there.

Sidhu and Singh have been at loggerheads for years now with the cricketer-turned-politician resigning as a state minister in 2019 after he was divested of his local bodies portfolio. He had switched sides from the BJP to the Congress before the 2017 Assembly polls. 

As part of a peace formula brokered by the Gandhis, Sidhu was made the PCC chief, much to the discomfort of Amarinder Singh. But the peace has not lasted even a month.