Congress high command failed to do patch up between Capt Amarinder and Sidhu
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Chandigarh
Firebrand Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder has resigned from the state cabinet. In a tweet, Sidhu has said that he has sent his resignation to Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi on 10th June and would send it to Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh also.
Sidhu twitted on Sunday, “I hereby resign as Minister from the Punjab Cabinet,”making public his resignation letter addressed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
The date, June 10, of his resignation letter was a day after he had met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi when his portfolio was changed. Sidhu had approached Congress president Rahul Gandhi on June 9 and had “apprised him of the situation” besides handing over a letter to him. He had also shared a picture with Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel on his Twitter handle and Facebook page on June 10. Since then, he had not shared anything on Twitter and Facebook.
On June 6, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted him the power and new and renewable energy portfolio. In an apparent snub, Sidhu, the Congress MLA from Amritsar East, was also left out of the consultative groups formed by the chief minister on June 8, two days after the cabinet reshuffle, to accelerate implementation of government’s flagship programmes.
Congress veteran Ahmed Patel had been entrusted with the task of resolving issues between Navjot Singh Sidhu and Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh.Capt. had met Patel during his visit to Delhi last month, but the party reportedly described the meeting as a “courtesy call”. Sidhu remained incommunicado and waited for over a month before making his resignation letter public indicated that he could have been waiting for reconciliation.
