Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is now trying to carvehis own political space after being kept waiting for his return to the stateCabinet.
His meeting with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has notyielded any result so far, while the Congress high command, which wasaggressive on Sidhu's issue, has also turned complacent, sources said.
Sidhu has suddenly become active in Punjab politics over thedesecration of the Guru Granth Sahib, an incident which occurred way back in2015.
On Tuesday, Sidhu went to the Burj Jawahar Singh gurdwara,the epicentre of the sacrilege incidents in Faridkot district in 2015, and saidthat the report prepared in connection with the case by the SpecialInvestigation Team should be made public.
Without mincing words, he had said: "More law, lessjustice... Justice delayed is justice denied."
In his tweets, Sidhu has hinted that things are not smooth,saying: "When you keep your conscious mortgage, then no powermatters."
The activeness of the cricketer-turned-politician is beingclosely watched by the Congress, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is also tryingto fish in troubled water given that Punjab will go to the polls next year.
Sidhu's return to the Punjab Cabinet too hangs in balance asthere is no indication from the Chief Minister of this happening, despitethe efforts of the Congress leadership and the party's General Secretaryin-charge of Punjab, Harish Rawat.
Amarinder Singh and Sidhu have met twice recently, but therehas been no breakthrough from either side. Sources said that Sidhu wants hisold portfolio, something which Amarinder Singh isn't willing to concede.
Sidhu last met Amarinder Singh on March 17. A day after themeeting, when the Punjab CM was asked about Sidhu's rehabilitation, he hadsaid: "Everyone wants him to be part of our team."
The party's central leadership is keen on accommodating theex-cricketer, who has been a star campaigner for the party.
Since Harish Rawat is recuperating from Covid after beingdischarged from the hospital, more time may be taken to decide organizationalissues.
Sidhu had resigned from the Punjab Cabinet in July 2019after being stripped of a key portfolio. He was in charge of local bodies butwas then shifted to the power department.
The simmering tension between the two leaders had reached the boiling point when Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur was denied a party ticket for theLok Sabha elections in 2019, sources said.