AICC panel to meet Capt Amarinder Singh, Navjot Singh Sidhu on June 22

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 18

The Congress panel on Punjab has called Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his detractor MLA Navjot Singh Sidhu to the capital next week for a final attempt to break the persisting logjam in the state unit reorganisation.

Top sources said the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Punjab panel chairman Mallikarjun Kharge had invited the two leaders for a meeting on June 22.

 The meeting has been scheduled following directions from Congress president Sonia Gandhi who has instructed the AICC panel to discuss the final formulation with the CM and Sidhu and see if a resolution could be reached.

Sonia wants Punjab factionalism settled soonest but the matters are stuck due to lack of consensus on the nature of Sidhu's accommodation.

Congress sources said deputy chief ministership was all the CM was willing to concede to Sidhu, who wants to be the state president.

Several senior Punjab Congress leaders have also, meantime, objected to Sidhu's PCC chief ambitions saying the party's rank and file would be demoralised if that happened.

It is further learnt that the CM is adamant on appointing at least two deputy CMs but Sidhu, for him to accept the formulation, is hoping that the offer (of deputy CM) is made exclusively to him.

The ball, sources said, was in Sidhu's court, with the party unlikely to overrule the CM in an election year. Moreover, the CM, of late, has been more accessible than usual and has been taking leaders along.

He has also been visibly more active on the government front.