Punjab politics | Navjot Singh Sidhu cannot be made deputy CM or state party chief, Amarinder Singh tells Congress panel

The Congress High Command is inclined to retain Navjot Singh Sidhu in a respectable position, probably with a prominent role in the campaign.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh told the three-member Congress committee headed by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi that Navjot Singh Sidhu cannot be made the deputy chief minister or the state party chief. He is also said to have assured the panel last week that action in the sacrilege-police firing cases would be taken in a couple of months, well before the Punjab polls.

The panel was set up by the Congress high command to resolve infighting in the party's state unit.

Singh, who is gearing up to take the party into elections under his leadership, said the elevation of Sidhu as deputy CM or PCC chief could upset leadership equations in the state unit. “The CM has said that Sidhu can rejoin the Cabinet and a post is vacant for him. The CM also made it clear that Sidhu cannot be made the PCC chief as there are many other senior leaders in the party unit who are eligible for that post. Also, both positions – the CM and the PCC chief – cannot go to Jat Sikhs,” a source aware of the deliberations told News18.

In fact, Singh pointed out to the committee that Sidhu has been on sort of a rebellious path lately by making statements against his government.

Sources also said the fact is not lost upon the High Command that it is Captain Singh who has always won elections for the Congress in Punjab and put up a great performance in the last Lok Sabha elections. Other Congress leaders who appeared before the committee also did not seem to back Sidhu for either of the two top posts (deputy CM or PCC chief) but at least two of them told News18 that the High Command seems inclined to retain Sidhu in a respectable position, probably with a prominent role in the campaign, and did not want him to deflect to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Another source said the CM had in fact asked the committee to rein in leaders like Sidhu and Partap Singh Bajwa who were acting like opposition parties in Punjab while SAD, AAP and BJP have fallen by the sidelines.

On the sensitive issue of delay in action in the sacrilege-police firing cases of 2015, which is a big issue in the state, the CM is said to have assured the committee that a new special investigation team (SIT) is on the job and action could follow in a couple of months, well before the Punjab elections scheduled in eight months. The CM is said to have told the committee that his government is also considering a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision of quashing the earlier SIT’s probe into the incidents.

Most Congress leaders who appeared before the committee said the delay in action in the case was a major concern and could cost the party in the upcoming elections as the same was a big pre-poll promise in the 2017 Punjab elections. A source said much of the probe was complete before the HC intervened to quash it as the Badal family questioned the pre-conceived notion of the probe given a police officer of the earlier SIT had been very vocal about it.