Punjab Congress crisis: Now, Amarinder Singh to meet Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh will meet Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday amid efforts by the party to resolve the ongoing crisis in the state unit.

The meeting comes days after sulking Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu had met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka.

Rahul and Priyanka’s meeting with Sidhu had assumed significance as the two had not met Amarinder Singh while he was in the national capital to meet the senior party leaders who were trying to resolve the factionalism in the state unit.

Amarinder Singh and Sidhu have been at loggerheads and have openly traded barbs at each other.
The Congress had formed a three-member panel to find ways to unite the different factions in the state unit ahead of the assembly elections next year.

The panel, headed by Mallikarjun Kharge, had submitted its report to Sonia Gandhi.
Rahul has met several senior leaders and elected representatives in the state to find a solution to the ongoing tussle between the two leaders.

Sidhu was a part of Amarinder Singh’s cabinet before he quit the ministry in 2019 after his portfolio was changed.
Sidhu has been vocal about his differences with the chief minister and has openly criticised his policies.

His latest salvo on the power crisis in the state was used by the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal to target the Amarinder government.

He has attacked the chief minister over the alleged delay in justice in the 2015 incidents of sacrilege and subsequent police firing. In response, Amarinder slammed Sidhu for continuously attacking him over the sacrilege issue and termed the former’s outbursts as “total indiscipline”.