Chorus for Sidhu’s ouster gets shriller
CAPT LOYALISTS STRIKE BACK Five ministers, Preneet defend Amarinder, say Sidhu should quit cabinet if he doubts CM’S leadership
PATIALA: The chorus for the resignation of Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu grew louder on Tuesday as five of his cabinet colleagues demanded that he quit the ministry if he doubted chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s leadership, signalling a full-blown slugfest in the state Congress ahead of the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results on May 23.
Sidhu, the party’s star campaigner, sparked a storm last week by his ‘friendly-match’ jibe at Amarinder, alluding to an alleged ‘secret political deal’ with the Badal family of the rival Shiromani Akali Dal. Sidhu had publicly taken a swipe at Amarinder for not acting against the Badals on the 2015 sacrilege and firing incidents during the Akali-bjp rule. Before that, his wife Navjot Kaur had accused the Captain of denying her the Lok Sabha ticket.
Significantly, Preneet Kaur, the wife of the chief minister and the party’s Lok Sabha candidate for Patiala, and Lal Singh, the head of the state campaign committee, also hit out against Sidhu, who is now in the firing line of Amarinder loyalists.
Sidhu has done wrong by making baseless allegations a day prior to polling. Captain Saab has no role in the denial of ticket to Navjot Kaur.
PRENEET KAUR, CM’S wife and Patiala Congress candidate
ATTACK HAMPERS CONG PROSPECTS
Leading a well-synchronised attack on Tuesday were ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Shyam Sundar Arora, Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and Gurpreet Singh Kangar.
“If Sidhu doubts the integrity of Captain Amarinder and has no faith in his leadership, he should quit,” said Bajwa, adding, “If he (Sidhu) is morally so strong, why is he sticking to his chair and working with a person he can’t trust.”
Calling the cricketer-turnedpolitician a “parachute leader” – an allusion to his previous innings with the BJP – Bajwa
If the party misses the mark on its Mission 13 of winning all Punjab seats, it will be entirely due to Sidhu’s statements
LAL SINGH, Amarinder loyalist
said that Sidhu has no experience of organisation building and is thus “repeatedly committing such mistakes that are hampering party prospects”.
Stung by Sidhu’s broadside, Amarinder was the first to vent his anger on Sunday, the day of polling in Punjab, by accusing Sidhu of ‘eyeing the chief minister’s chair’. The next day, three ministers, Brahm Mohindra, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot fired a salvo against Sidhu and demanded his resignation from the cabinet and asked the high command to take disciplinary action against him.