Agencies
Chandigarh, October 01:
Amid the ongoing crisis in the Congress’ Punjab unit, a decision on a coordination committee seems to have resolved the issue in the state heading to assembly elections early next year. The decision to form the panel was taken after a three-hour meeting attended by Navjot Singh Sidhu, who resigned as the president of the Congress’ Punjab unit, chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and the state ministers Pargat Singh and Raj Kumar Verka and leaders like Pawan Goyal, Kuljit Nagra and Harish Chaudhary. “Everything is fine,” Pargat Singh told the media after the meeting.
According to people familiar with the matter, the coordination panel will be consulted before any major decision is take-in the state. And Sidhu is likely to retain his post as the Punjab unit chief of the party. The people cited above said the panel is likely to be headed by a central leader and may comprise Channi, Sidhu and a third leader. Reports said AICC in-charge of Punjab Harish Rawat, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni and a few senior leaders of the party’s state unit could be part of the committee.
During the meeting held at the Punjab Bhawan on Thursday, Sidhu demanded the removal of the director general of police (DGP) Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota and Punjab’s advocate general APS Deol. Their names are linked to the desecration of a religious text in Punjab’s Faridkot district in 2015, whose investigation was handed over by the then Parkash Singh Badal-led government to an SIT led by Sahota. Deol was a counsel for former Punjab DGP Sumedh Singh Saini and represented him in cases related to police firing on Sikhs protesting against the sacrilege cases.
“DGP IPS Sahota was head of SIT investigating Beadbi case under Badal govt, he wrongfully indicted two Sikh youth for sacrilege & gave a clean chit to Badals…” Sidhu tweeted earlier in the day attacking Sahota.
Thursday’s meeting was held after Sidhu abruptly resigned as the Congress Punjab unit chief on September 28, thrusting the party into a fresh crisis. The party was already battling the bitter tussle between Sidhu and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Charanjeet Singh Channi took oath as the 16th chief minister of Punjab on September 20, days after Captain Amarinder Singh stepped down from the top job in the state following months of infighting between him and Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Amarinder Singh resigned as the Punjab chief minister on September 18 and told the media that the Congress leadership had let him down and he felt insulted and humiliated. He also took a dig at Sidhu over his resignation, saying he is not a stable man. Sidhu was made PCC chief by Congress leadership in July to stem infighting in Punjab Congress ahead of next year’s assembly polls.
