Congress’ Punjab House Is In Disarray, As Sulking Sidhu, Squabbling Gill Won’t Play, Just Ahead Of Voting Day

Punjab assembly elections are barely a week away and the Congress is quite aware that its house is not in order, though some last-minute fire-fighting is on. Many party MPs have opted to stay away from the field after their wishes were ignored. Khadoor Sahib MP Jasbir Singh Gill tweeted about AICC in charge Harish Chaudhury as “Thug of Barmer” responsible for the mess. Gill had secured his Lok Sabha seat for the Congress after 43 years in 2019 but the party did not give an assembly ticket to his son Gursant or brother Rajan Gill. Instead, it chose to field sons of Jalandar MP Santokh Chaudhury and Fategarh Sahib MP Amar Singh — both Dalit MPs. The Congress was equally tough on Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari, who as part of G-23, was not included among star campaigners. “We are on a hara kiri in Punjab. Why not use Manish in Punjab, he is after all our MP,” rues an old-timer. PCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, one-time star campaigner, shunned by party cadre in Amritsar (East) is relying mainly on wife Navjot Kaur and daughter Rabia to campaign for him. With the CMO out of his reach now, Sidhu has completely turned against CM Channi — he refused to speak at a joint rally where Priyanka Vadra was present.