Navjot Singh Sidhu appears all set to become the Punjab Congress president despite Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s written protest to party president Sonia Gandhi to make a choice between him and Sidhu. He reportedly said he cannot guarantee the Congress victory in the Assembly polls early next year even if the elections are contested under his leadership as the chief minister.
Party sources said All India Congress Committee general secretary Harish Rawat, who is incharge of Punjab affairs, met Amarinder and tried to pacify him that the party leadership will appoint four working presidents of the state Congress instead of the earlier plans to have two, one a Hindu and another a Dalit.
Raveen Thukral, media adviser to the CM, quoted him stating that he “raised certain issues, which he said he will take up with the Congress President”.
A top party source in Delhi said the leadership is going by the recent surveys in Punjab that indicated that the chief minister has become very unpopular among the Sikhs in the state because of several factors, including inaction on the alleged desecration of their religious book.
They said the leadership had left all decisions on Captain in the last election, but it won’t be so this time.