Navjot Sidhu shared the letter dated October 15 on Twitter today. file
New Delhi:
Days after Punjab Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu struck a deal with Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, he has drawn up a 13-point agenda on governance – “priority areas” and the promises made ahead of the 2017 elections, he said. must be met”. Huh.
He also asked Mrs Gandhi that the party direct the state government to act on those lines as a “final damage control measure” – a request that could reopen her rift with the chief minister.
Mr Sidhu shared the letter he wrote on Twitter on October 15 – a day after he met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal and withdrew his resignation as Punjab Congress president. However, he did not put his designation as state Congress president in the letter.
— Navjot Singh Sidhu (@sheryontopp) October 17, 2021
He has also sought a meeting with Mrs Gandhi to present a 13-point agenda for next year’s election manifesto, which, she said, has long-term goals and is different from the issues she has raised in the letter.
The cricketer-turned-politician, the biggest critic of the Amarinder Singh government, who expected him to succeed him at the top post, insisted in the letter that this was Punjab’s “last chance for revival and redemption”.
He wrote that being the richest state in the country, Punjab is now the most indebted. The issues he flagged included sacrilege cases, Punjab’s drug problem, agriculture issues, employment opportunities, sand mining and welfare of backward castes, electricity and transport and stressed that they should be taken care of at the earliest. need to be resolved as soon as possible.
“Thus, I request you to kindly consider these points and direct the state government to act immediately in the best interest of the people of Punjab,” he wrote.
Mr Sidhu, the biggest critic of the Amarinder Singh government, had expected him to rise to the top post. He ran into trouble when Mr. Singh’s successor – Mr. Channi – took over.
Expressing his displeasure over the appointments and cabinet reshuffles under the new chief minister, Mr Sidhu resigned as Punjab Congress chief last month. He was back on board the next day after the Chief Minister agreed to consider his suggestions.
His absence at Mr. Channi’s wedding once again indicated that all was not well.
Now his request to the Congress President to instruct the Charanjit Singh Channi government is now being seen as a sign that the state party chief’s tussle with the Chief Minister is not over yet.
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