Panel keen on ‘adjusting’ Navjot Sidhu: Punjab ministers
Aditi Tandon and Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi/ Chandigarh, May 31
The AICC panel set up to strengthen party’s Punjab unit ahead of the Assembly elections began discussions with key stakeholders today. The committee, led by Mallikarjun Kharge, met 25 leaders, among them state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, ministers OP Soni, Brahm Mohindra, Rana Sodhi and Sukhjinder Randhawa and legislators Pawan Adia and Raj Kumar Verka.
The panel aims to conclude deliberations by the weekend and submit a report to the party president for the final call on solutions to resolve the rift between CM Capt Amarinder Singh and his former Cabinet colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu.
A section of ministers claimed “accommodating” Sidhu appeared high on the panel’s agenda. A combative Jakhar, after a 15-minute meeting, said, “We hope the committee takes note of certain leaders who gunned for their own government when hooch tragedy struck the Chief Minister’s constituency but are now silent on the illicit liquor bottling plant in Badal village.”
A section of MLAs and ministers, including some from the CM’s camp, reportedly spoke against Captain’s coterie and claimed that bureaucracy, not elected representatives, called the shots in the state. Some spoke of CM’s “inaccessibility.” Dalit leaders flagged “under-representation”. A section of MLAs pointed out the delay in ensuring justice to the kin of victims killed in the Kotkapura police firing, sources said.
Another said a resolution could include appointment of more than one deputy CM, one of them being Sidhu and the other probably from the Dalit community. Senior Dalit MLA Verka hinted: “There will be good news for Punjab Dalits soon.”
