After months of intense party infighting with Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu was named Punjab Congress president on Sunday.
Along with Sidhu, four working presidents have been appointed: Sangat Singh Gilzian, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Pawan Goel, and Kujit Singh Nagra. Rahul Gandhi has chosen Danny, a Dalit Sikh. Sangat Singh is a member of the OBC community, whereas Goel is a Hindu and Nagra is a Jat Sikh.
Amarinder Singh has criticized Sidhu for the perceived delay in justice in the 2015 desecration charges, and the two have been at odds. Both have lately attended a series of meetings in Chandigarh and other parts of Punjab to finalize last-minute plans for the next party reorganization.
While Sidhu has been vying to succeed the Captain in Punjab, the Chief Minister has expressed his dissatisfaction with the prospect of the cricketer and his nemesis being granted a major position in the party. He had already written to Sonia Gandhi, claiming that if Sidhu was appointed, the party would be “divided” in the state.
Party MLAs had united around the Captain earlier in the day. Sukhpal Khaira, a senior party official who claims the backing of ten Congress MLAs, had asked the party’s top command not to let down Amarinder Singh, “thanks to whose tireless efforts the party is firmly established in Punjab.”
In a joint statement, Khaira, who recently switched from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to the Congress, said there was no doubt that the party high command had the final say on the state PCC chief’s appointment, but that “washing dirty linen in public has only dipped the party graph during the last couple of months.”
The MLAs claimed that Captain was responsible for the party regaining power in Punjab following the 1984 attack on Darbar Sahib and the ensuing Sikh genocide in Delhi and elsewhere in the country.
Harish Rawat, the AICC general secretary, and Punjab in charge flew down to Chandigarh on Saturday in an apparent attempt to appease the chief minister. Rawat tweeted after the meeting that the CM had indicated he would “respect the party’s decision on the subject.”
While opposition parties prepare for assembly elections in 2022, Congress has been involved in its own struggle. In the meanwhile, Sidhu has increased his efforts and reached out to additional party officials and lawmakers for support.
