Hours after Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned from the Punjab cabinet on Sunday, 14 July, microblogging site Twitter was flooded with reactions on his decision to quit as minister.
Sidhu, who has been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, was stripped off key portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle in June.
On Sunday. the 55-year-old took to Twitter, making public his resignation letter, which was sent just four days after his portfolio was changed.
The resignation letter dated 10 June was addressed to Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
Stating the he was “rather appalled to learn of Sidhu's resignation from the Punjab Cabinet", Bollywood actor and politician Shatrugan Sinha said “He (Sidhu) has been a supremely talented and popular sportsman and politician.
He also praised Sidhu for being “a wonderful human being and man in demand”.
Rebel Congress leader Shehzad Poonawalla, on the other hand, took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying: “For a month, Rahul kept it in abeyance despite quitting as INC President."
“Was a super remote control over Capt Amarinder Singh and prevented him from firing Sidhu earlier? “ he asked in a tweet on Sunday.
‘Rats Are Always the First to Desert a Sinking Ship’
Alleging that “Rahul Gandhi's Congress is almost a sunken ship”, West Bengal BJP Vice leader Chandra Kumar Bose said: “The Rats are always the first to desert a sinking ship.”
“The Congress’s so called prized catch from the BJP, too is deserting them,” he wrote on Twitter.
Other social media users, too, had a field day questioning Sidhu’s loyalty.
One of the Twitter users went so far so that he used Sidhu’s own lines "Chakk de phatte, naap de killi” to mock his decision of submitting his resignation letter to Rahul Gandhi in Delhi, instead of sending it to Capt Amarinder Singh in Punjab.
“Sidhu acted like a fool... He had to go to Japan, but went to China instead (Sidhu ji ne kari Budhu bali bat, Jana tha Japan Chin pahunch gaye na),” wrote another user.
‘Sidhu Sends Resignation Letter to ‘Cong President’ Who Already Resigned Himself’
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, according to PTI.
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 June 8, two days after the cabinet reshuffle, to accelerate implementation of government's flagship programmes.
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