Sidhu likely to stay as Punjab Cong chief, party to set up coordination panel

Navjot Singh Sidhu will continue as the Punjab Congress chief and a coordination panel is likely to be set up which is expected to be consulted before any major decisions by the Punjab government in future party sources said on ThursdayThe decision was reached after an over twohour meeting at the Punjab Congress Bhavan between Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Sidhu who had resigned from the post of the state party chief on TuesdayThe panel may comprise the CM Navjot Singh Sidhu and a representative of the AICC the sources saidThe AllIndia Congress Committee AICC is expected to make an announcement in this regard the sources saidHowever it is still unclear how differences over the appointment of the DGP and the AG will be dealt withMiffed Sidhu on Wednesday had raised a question over the appointments of the DGP states advocate general and tainted leadersBesides Channi and Sidhu the meeting was attended by senior Congress leader and central observer Harish Chaudhary minister Pargat Singh and Punjab Congress working president Kuljit Nagra the sources saidMinister Raj Kumar Verka MLAs Inderbir Singh Bolaria Avtar Singh Junior and PPCC working president Pawan Goel were in another room they saidThere was no press briefing after the meeting between Sidhu and ChanniChanni left the venue around 6 pm while Sidhu came out about half an hour laterNo party leader spoke to the media after the meeting concludedEarlier in the day Sidhu reached Chandigarh from Patiala to meet ChanniThe meeting came a day after Channi reached out to him and offered to resolve issues through talksJust before his meeting with Channi Sidhu attacked the states new DGP alleging that he wrongly indicted two Sikh youths in a desecration case and gave a clean chit to the BadalsThe desecration of a religious text allegedly took place in Punjabs Faridkot district in 2015 whose investigation was handed over by the then Parkash Singh Badalled government to an SIT led by current DGP Iqbal Preet Singh SahotaSahota was given the additional charge of the states DGP by the Charanjit Singh Channiled governmentThe development in the Punjab Congress comes on a day when former chief minister Amarinder Singh was in Delhi and said he will quit the Congress which he asserted was going downhill with senior leaders being ignoredBut Amariner scotched speculation of his joining the BJPFormer state party chief Sunil Jakhar also said there should be an end to attempts to undermine the authority of the Punjab chief minister time and againJakhar said aspersions being cast on the selection of the states advocate general and state police head were actually questioning the integrity of the CMJakhar was obliquely referring to Sidhu who had raised questions over the appointments of the director general of police and the states advocate generalEnough is enough Put an end to attempts to undermine the authority of CM time and again Aspersions being cast on the selection of AG amp DGP is actually questioning the integritycompetence of CM and Home Minister to deliver results he saidIts time to put the foot down and clear the air tweeted Jakhar who was the front runner for the post of the chief ministerBut the party later chose Charanjit Singh ChanniThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever