‘Handed my letter’: Sidhu meets Rahul Gandhi, apprises him of ‘situation’

Sidhu had made attempts to meet Rahul Gandhi last week after he was divested of the local government and tourism and cultural affairs departments in a cabinet rejig. He was given the power and new and renewable energy sources portfolios.

The developments came after Sidhu, who moved from the BJP to the Congress just before 2017 assembly polls, had skipped a cabinet meeting and instead chose to address the media at his official residence on Thursday.

Tension between Singh and Sidhu had come out in the open last month when the chief minister had blamed the cricketer-turned-politician’s “inept handling” of the local government department for the “poor performance” of the Congress in the urban areas in the Lok Sabha polls.

The chief minister had also said the urban votebank had been the backbone of the Congress in Punjab but Sidhu’s “failure” to do any development work had impacted the party.

After the ministry snub, Sidhu was left out of eight consultative groups formed by the chief minister on Saturday to expedite implementation of the state government’s schemes.

Sidhu, however, on Thursday, had said his department had been “singled out publicly” while asserting that he could not be taken for granted as he had been a “performer throughout”.