Chandigarh: Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu Today, said that people of Punjab will decide who will be the next Chief Minister of Punjab, not Congress High Command. This comment came when mediapersons asked him about Chief Ministerial Candidate for the upcoming assembly elections.
This truth-bomb was dropped by Navjot Singh Sidhu, while speaking with the media persons today.
“The people of Punjab will decide who will be the CM. Who told you that the (Congress) high command will make the CM? Don’t have any false implication in your mind that the high command will decide Punjab CM candidate from Congress. The people of Punjab will decide the MLAs and the people of Punjab will decide their Chief Minister,” Sidhu told reporters.
These remarks from Sidhu came after senior party leader Sunil Jakhar stated that the Congress won’t announce a Chief Minister face for the assembly elections. He also stated that the party will contest the polls under a “joint leadership.”
Sidhu’s media statements contradicting with the party’s statement has become a recurring thing.
In an interview to NDTV on January 4, Sidhu said it is up to the Congress leadership to decide on a chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, adding that he considered himself a soldier, doing his job and fighting on issues critical to the state, like its debt and fiscal deficit.
The outspoken Congress leader, in the same interview, also tackled a question on his unrelenting criticism of his own party government in Punjab, which has not spared even Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
“His (Channi’s) intention is good. But he needs to follow through with budgetary allocation, research and proper policy to salvage the state,” Mr Sidhu had said in the interview.
In recent weeks, Sidhu has been heard questioning his government for not arresting Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who has been booked in a drug case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Sidhu said he believed in being open about his critique as his intention was to lay the agenda for the Congress government.
The contest is tough this year, as the Aam Aadmi Party is emerging strong contenders to become the single largest party. The others in the fray are Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal, and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance with Captain Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress.
The 2022 Punjab Assembly elections will be conducted on February 14, while the counting of votes will be done on March 10.
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