Punjab CM Amarinder Singh Accepts Navjot Sidhu’s Resignation

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has accepted Navjot Singh Sidhu’s resignation as state minister.

Navjot Singh Sidhu (L), Capt Amarinder Singh (R). Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur / The Quint)

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday, 20 July, accepted Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation as minister and forwarded the letter to the Governor.

Sidhu objected to taking up his new position in the ministry allocated to him after a state cabinet reshuffle on 6 June.

Sidhu is now in New Delhi and is expected to meet Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra after she returns from Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur, reported NDTV.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday, 16 July, had said he would make a decision about Navjot Singh Sidhu's resignation after going through the contents of the letter.

A day after tweeting his resignation letter as a minister in the Punjab Cabinet, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday, 15 July, said he has sent his resignation to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and it has been delivered at his official residence.

‘Can't Help If Sidhu Doesn't Want to Do His Job’: Amarinder Hits Back

The Punjab CM, meanwhile, responded to the resignation on Monday saying he has no "issues" with Sidhu. "I had, in fact, given him a very important portfolio after the reshuffle. It was his decision to quit the Cabinet. I have been told that he has sent the letter to my office, will go through it and then see what is to be done."

"If Sidhu doesn't want to do the job, there is nothing I can do about it," said Amarinder.

He further added that the minister should have accepted his new portfolio instead of shunning work in the middle of the crucial paddy season and that Sidhu was given a job which he should have accepted and done.

On Sidhu's wife, Navjot Kaur, Amarinder Singh said:

“I have never opposed Mrs Sidhu. In fact, I was the one who recommended to Rahul ji (Rahul Gandhi) that she contests from Bathinda. It was Sidhu who said that his wife will not contest from Bathinda, but from Chandigarh. So, it was not for him to decide this, party decides these things.”

Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, as quoted by ANI

Sidhu’s Resignation Letter Dates Back to June

Sidhu has been at loggerheads with the Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and was stripped of key portfolios during the cabinet reshuffle in June.

The resignation letter that Sidhu had tweeted on Sunday is dated 10 June and was addressed to the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi. “I hereby resign as Minister from the Punjab Cabinet,” the letter read.

The letter was sent just four days after his portfolio was changed.

Sidhu’s resignation letter came a day after he met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi.

Mounting Tensions Between Sidhu and Amarinder

On 6 June, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted him the Power and New and Renewable Energy portfolio.

Portfolios of several other ministers too, had been changed in the reshuffle exercise.

In an apparent snub, Sidhu, the Congress MLA from Amritsar East, was also left out of the consultative groups formed by the chief minister on 8 June. The decision had come two days after the Cabinet reshuffle with an aim to accelerate implementation of the government's flagship programmes.

Over a month after he was stripped of key portfolios, Sidhu had not taken charge of his new assignment, as a stalemate with the CM had continued.

Ever since the portfolio reshuffle exercise, the Punjab minister and his wife Navjot Kaur have been maintaining distance from the media.

The tension between Singh and his Cabinet colleague had come out in the open last month when the CM blamed Sidhu for "inept handling" of the Local Government Department, claiming that it had resulted in "poor performance" of the Congress in urban areas in the Lok Sabha polls.

The CM had said last month that the urban vote bank had been the backbone of the Congress in Punjab but Sidhu's "failure" in carrying out any development work impacted the party.

Sidhu, however, had said that his department was being "singled out publicly" while asserting that he could not be taken for granted as he had been a "performer throughout".

BJP Reacts to Sidhu’s Resignation

Reacting to the resignation, the BJP said that Sindhu’s political career has ended. over. "Sidhu has no future in Punjab politics now. His political career is over," said BJP National secretary Tarun Chugh.

(With inputs from PTI, NDTV, ANI.)