Amarinder Singh to attend Navjot Sidhu’s elevation ceremony as Punjab Congress chief today

Navjot Singh Sidhu will take charge as the chief of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on Friday. Besides Sidhu, four other working presidents will also assume charge. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh with whom Sidhu has been at odds, will be participating in the ceremony, signalling a truce in the dissension-driven party. Notably, the Chief Minister was averse to Sidhu’s appointment as the state Congress chief.

Sidhu will be taking over from incumbent state Congress chief Sunil Jakhar. Incharge of Punjab affairs at the AICC, Harish Rawat, and other senior Congress leaders are expected to attend the event.

According to the CM’s media adviser, Amarinder Singh has invited party leaders for tea on Friday from where they will “all go for the installation” of the new Congress team under Navjot Sidhu.

The tweet by the CM’s media adviser came after Kuljit Singh Nagra and Sangat Singh Gilzian, two of the four newly appointed working presidents for the state party unit, extended a formal invite to the CM at his farmhouse in Mohali’s Siswan for the installation ceremony. The invitation letter was signed by over 55 legislators.

Sidhu too in a separate letter requested Amarinder Singh to come for the installation ceremony and said he had “no personal agenda”. “My resolve and commitment on Punjab’s issues and fulfilling high command’s pro-people 18-point agenda for the welfare of every Punjabi is well-known to you and all,” Sidhu said.

“Thus as the eldest of our Punjab Congress family, I request you to please come and bless the new team,” he wrote in an apparent bid to bury the differences with the CM.

Sidhu and Amarinder Singh have been at loggerheads for the past some time, with the Amritsar (East) MLA recently attacking the CM over the desecration cases. After Sidhu’s elevation, the CM had said that he won’t meet him until the cricketer-turned-politician apologises for his “derogatory” tweets against him.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi had on Sunday appointed Sidhu as the new president of the party’s Punjab unit, notwithstanding the strong opposition from Amarinder Singh. She also appointed four working presidents, Sangat Singh Gilzian, Sukhwinder Singh Danny, Pawan Goel and Kuljit Singh Nagra, to assist Sidhu in the run-up to the next Assembly elections.

Earlier on Wednesday, in what was seen as a show of strength, nearly 60 Congress MLAs gathered at the residence of Sidhu in Amritsar, amid suspense over a possible truce between him and Amarinder. The Congress has 80 MLAs in the state Assembly.

READ MORE: Navjot Sidhu’s big show of strength: Over 60 Congress MLAs gather at his Amritsar home

READ MORE: Will work along with every member of Congress, says Sidhu after becoming Punjab unit chief

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