Punjab Congress’s Sidhu dilemma continues as the party fails to rein in former chief

Even as Punjab Congress attempts to push back against the party high command’s efforts to strike a seat-sharing bargain with the Congress in the state, a widening rift within is now on the top of the problems it faces. In the middle of it is former state unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu who is facing calls for disciplinary action for holding addressing events on his own.

As he wrapped up his first visit to Punjab since assuming his current post, All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) Punjab in-charge Devender Yadav faced the reality of the divide in the state unit — with Sidhu on one side and nearly all the senior state leadership on the other. Yadav told reporters that action would be taken against workers or leaders who break discipline but Sidhu, who has been charting his own path, said “discipline” should not imply different things for different people.

On Wednesday, Sidhu held a rally in Hoshiarpur when he was supposed to attend a meeting with Yadav. On Thursday, he held a closed-door meeting with Yadav in a Chandigarh hotel. Emerging out of the meeting, Sidhu told reporters, “We are soldiers of Rahul Gandhi and (Congress national president Mallikarjun) Kharge sahib.”

Having already addressed three public meetings, Sidhu has scheduled at least two more rallies this month: on January 21 in Moga and January 24 in Kartarpur. He said his meetings were aimed at strengthening the party and that he was holding the rallies to unite and end the “system slavery and propagate the Congress’ ideology”.

“In a democracy, the people are the biggest strength and everyone must take the Congress ideology and consider the high command supreme. We will follow it… But how one will vote for you without telling them that what is to be done for