Navjot Singh Sidhu meets Congress president in Delhi

New Delhi: Punjab minister and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu Monday met party president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and apprised him of the “situation” in the state, days after chief minister Ama-rinder Singh divested him of the crucial local government department.

“Met the Congress President, handed him my letter, appraised him of the situation !” Mr Sidhu tweeted. Mr Sidhu’s tweet also included a photo in which he is flanked by Mr Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who joined the Congress in January. Congress leader Ahmed Patel, a close aide of Mr Gandhi’s mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, is also in the photo.

Mr Sidhu had reportedly been camping in Delhi since Friday to try and meet Mr Gandhi, who had himself offered to step down over the Congress’s drubbing in the national election. Mr Sidhu accused the chief minister of blocking his wife Navjot Kaur’s candidature for the Lok Sabha elections. In a sulk, he went off the grid for more than 20 days without any explanation. On the day of the results, May 23,  Captain Singh had said the Congress failed to do well in urban areas because Mr Sidhu had handled his portfolio poorly.

Insiders claim that Mr Sidhu told the Congress leadership that the urban areas for which he was responsible voted for the Congress.

Captain Singh said the changes he had made to ministers’ portfolios would “help further streamline the governing system and processes” and bring more transparency and efficacy to various departments. Mr Sidhu held a Facebook live session the same day and said: “I cannot be taken for granted... I have been singled out in spite of collective responsibility.” After the ministry snub, Mr Sidhu was left out of eight consultative groups formed by the chief minister on Saturday to expedite implementation of the state government’s schemes.

Presently, an uneasy calm lies over Punjab. The Congress leadership is learnt to have tried to smoothen ruffled feathers in the state. But if the situation is not handled carefully it could blow up in the face of the party that is already reeling after the Lok Sabha poll debacle.