Chandigarh, Oct 17: Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has sought a meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi, flagging in a letter issues which the government “must deliver upon” and saying it is the poll-bound state’s “last chance for resurrection and redemption”.
In the letter to the Congress president on October 15, a day after he had meetings with senior party leaders in Delhi, Sidhu pitched for a “Punjab Model with a 13-Point Agenda to be part of the Congress manifesto for the 2022 Assembly Elections”.
Days after resigning as Punjab Congress chief, Sidhu had on October 15 said his concerns have been resolved and the party asserted that he will continue as the head of the state unit. The resolution came after the cricketer-turned-politician met party leader Rahul Gandhi and raised his concerns. Meanwhile, on Sunday evening, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi held a meeting with Sidhu.
Minister Pargat Singh, who is considered close to Sidhu, was among those present on the occasion. The meeting was held hours after Sidhu made public his letter to Sonia Gandhi on his Twitter handle. It is seen as a follow-up of Sidhu’s meeting with senior Congress leaders in Delhi a few days ago, sources said.
In his letter to Sonia Gandhi, Sidhu reminded her of the party’s 18-point agenda “given to the last chief minister” of Punjab and said that those were “equally relevant today”. “Today, I write to your esteemed self with priority areas among the 18-point agenda of the 2017 campaign and the manifesto promises which the state government must deliver upon,” said Sidhu in the letter where he did not put his designation as the state Congress chief.
He said the people of Punjab demand justice for the 2015 police firing at Kotkapura and Behbal Kalan in Faridkot following the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib during the previous SAD-BJP regime.
Punjab goes to polls early next year and the Congress is eyeing to retain power in the state.
On the drugs issue, the Punjab Congress chief, in the latter, said, “The big fish mentioned in the STF report must be immediately arrested and given exemplary punishment.” He also wrote that the state government must reject the “three black farm laws” of the Centre “by announcing that they will not be implemented in Punjab at any cost”.
The state government must release a white paper on power purchase agreements and cancellation of “all faulty PPAs as promised by us”, Sidhu said.
He also batted for more representation to the Dalits and Backward Classes in the state cabinet.
“Even after High Command’s progressive decision of appointing a Dalit chief minister to give the under-privileged more voice in the government, it has not been supported in the state in equal measure. (PTI)
