Sidhu withdraws resignation as Punjab Cong chief

Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said he has withdrawn his resignation as the party's Punjab chief but declared that he will not re-assume charge till the state's new advocate general is removed.

Even while announcing that he is taking back his resignation as Punjab Pradesh Congress president, Sidhu continued to target the new Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government in the state.

Sidhu had resigned from the post on September 28, triggering a fresh crisis in the party's Punjab unit as it prepares for the next assembly polls.

But days later, Congress leaders indicated he would continue with the responsibility that was given to him amid his power tussle with the then CM Amarinder Singh.

"At the start, I want to say that Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi's soldier has taken back his resignation," Sidhu told a press conference.

"I have taken back my resignation. And I categorically state that the day a new Advocate General is appointed, I will assume charge," he said.

He also said he will assume charge of the party post the day the panel for the appointment of the new Director General of Police is appointed.

Sidhu has opposed the appointment of state Advocate General A P S Deol and Director General of Police Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota, considered as Channi's choices.

He had earlier indicated that these two appointments were part of the reason he quit.

Sahota had headed the SIT formed by the previous Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government to probe incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib in 2015.

And as a lawyer, Deol had represented former DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, who headed the state police six years ago during the incidents of sacrilege and a police firing on protesters.

"It is not any personal ego," Sidhu said, arguing that the offices of the AG and the DGP are crucial to take the Bargari sacrilege and drug trafficking cases to their logical conclusions.

Firing a salvo against his own government, Sidhu said all he was asking was what the Channi government has done in the past 50 days on the sacrilege case and on making a special task force report on drug cases public.

"I say if you don't have the guts to make the STF report public, give it to the party and I will make it public. I have the guts," he said.

After three special investigation teams, seven FIRs, two commissions of inquiry and six years after the sacrilege case, were these the only officers the state government could find, Sidhu taunted.

He said DGP Sahota was the previous police chief Sumedh Singh Saini's favourite.

"That blue eyed boy becomes the DGP of Punjab. That is the big question, it is not my question, but one of people of Punjab," he said.

Sidhu said the party will not be able to face the people on the sacrilege and the drugs issue. The Congress had come to power in 2017, promising action on these issues, he said.

Replying to a question, the cricketer-turned-politician insisted that he did not have any differences with Channi.

"I have been talking to him. I speak to him for the state, for all the good that can be done for the state. I have no differences with Charanjit Channi. I stand for Punjab, which is my soul, that's all," he said.

"I am not angry with anyone, I just raise issues, I raise the voice of people of Punjab," he said.

He also claimed that his recent remarks about tall promises on power supply and employment were targeted at Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, and not Channi.

He accused former chief minister Amarinder Singh of centralising power and 'using' officers.

Sidhu said people elect a leader they love and insisted that he does not hanker for power.

"I gave up posts. I was given big offers, but I rejected all those for Punjab's sake," he said, referring to the time when he was with the BJP.

Sidhu's detractors claim that he is looking at the possibility of becoming CM if the Congress returns to power in the state after the assembly polls just months away.