Chandigarh : The SAD on Friday alleged that the “quarrel” between new Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and CM Amarinder Singh was a “drama”, staged to save the party’s sinking ship by diverting people’s attention from the state government’s failures.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said this referring to the differences between Amarinder Singh and Sidhu that had cropped up ahead of the Amritsar MLA”s appointment as the state Congress chief.
The chief minister and Sidhu had been at loggerheads after the cricketer-turned-politician attacked his own government over the desecration cases.
The chief minister too had opposed the Sidhu’s elevation as the party chief and had refused to meet him.
However, on Friday, the chief minister attended Sidhu’s installation ceremony after the Amritsar MLA requested him to come for it, in an apparent bid to bury the differences.
Taking a swipe at it, former state minister and SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Sidhu and Amarinder Singh are guilty of “deceiving” people of the State.
“It is now becoming increasingly clear that the quarrel between Sidhu and the chief minister was managed one to divert the attention of people,” he said, adding that an effort is being made to save the “party”s sinking ship” by changing the Congress president.
“A two-month-long drama was also played out with this in mind,” he alleged referring to the infighting in the Congress.
“It is clear now that the actual fight in the Punjab Congress was over the distribution of spoils of power. Now, that a promise has been made by the high command that the proceeds of corruption will be distributed equally, the warring parties have buried the hatchet and are claiming this as a victory,” the SAD leader alleged.
Cheema also condemned Sunil Jakhar, who was replaced by Sidhu as the Punjab Congress chief, for saying that the road to re-election in Punjab ran through Bargari and Behbal Kalan, the places associated with the 2015 desecration cases.
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