With Partap Singh Bajwa ‘request’ to Navjot Singh Sidhu, factionalism at fore again in Punjab Congress

Extending an invitation to Sidhu to participate in party protests, Bajwa said he believed that those advising Sidhu must have also been telling him not to organise a separate “akhara”.

“I would only request him to quietly go along with the party cadre and come to party stages. Now after two days, we [Punjab Congress] are holding protests in Jagraon and Phagwara on December 21 and 22. Come there if you have to say something. Eh aapna nawan akhara launa changi gal nahi. Koyi Punjab da Congress man enu changi gal nahi samajhda (This setting up of one’s stage is not a good thing. No Punjab Congress man considers it good).”

On his part, Sidhu shared a post by Malvinder Singh Mali, who was appointed as an advisor when Sidhu was PPCC chief, against Bajwa. Mali’s post in Punjabi termed Bajwa’s remarks as “misleading”.

Targeting Bajwa, Mali had said in the Facebook post, “The onus of Congress MLAs getting reduced from 78 to 18 lies on you and not Navjot Sidhu as [then] PPCC president.”

In an apparent reference to Congress high command declaring Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit leader, the chief ministerial candidate for the 2022 Punjab Assembly election, Mali wrote, “You played Dalit card by dismissing Navjot Singh Sidhu’s agenda to end the loot.”

Without naming Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Mali asked Bajwa, “Navjot Singh Sidhu has attacked policies of the government. Why are you getting perturbed?”

He added that despite losing polls, Sidhu attacked the AAP government for not fulfilling the pre-poll guarantees and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann was “forced to invite him for a debate”.

On the Opposition INDIA bloc, Mali wrote, “You dismiss the INDIA alliance and say that you will not implement its decision and that it will not be a separate “akhara” (stage). But when Sidhu says that he will stand by the high command and fight for Punjab, how come it is a separate stage?”

At the rally in Mehraj on Sunday, Sidhu had attacked Parkash Singh Badal, Captain Amarinder Singh, Charanjit Singh Channi, Bhagwant Mann, and Arvind Kejriwal.

Vowing to ensure Maharaja Ranjit Singh like rule in Punjab, Sidhu said, “30 saalan ton mukh mantri jitde aaye te Punjab haarda aaya. 30 saal ton mukh mantri bannde aaye te dhanda karde aaye. business karde aaye. Punjab nu vechde aaye. Punjab nu girvi dharde aaye aa (In the last 30 years, politicians who became CMs went on to win, but Punjab kept losing. For 30 years, Punjab CMs did business, kept on selling Punjab and mortgaging Punjab).”

“I don’t think that CMs, who were indifferent to Punjab, prevailed or won. Guru did not spare any of them,” Sidhu said.