Capt Sandeep Sandhu (retd), one of the longest-serving organisational functionaries of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), has resigned as the general secretary (organisation), leaving the key post vacant.
His resignation comes weeks after Pargat took charge of the Punjab Congress on October 2, replacing Warring amid continuing factional differences within the state unit.
The working relationship between Pargat and Sandhu, meanwhile, has been marked by differences, dating back to the Amarinder Singh-led government. The episode brought the friction between the two leaders into the open. Pargat, a former India hockey captain and three-time MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment, had emerged as a vocal critic of the Amarinder government on the sacrilege issue. Sandhu, meanwhile, was closely associated with the then chief minister’s political and organisational functioning.
In May 2021, Pargat, then the Jalandhar Cantonment MLA, had alleged that Sandhu, who was Amarinder’s political secretary at the time, had conveyed a message from the then chief minister threatening action against him for questioning the government over the sacrilege and police firing cases. The controversy had erupted amid growing dissent within the Punjab Congress over the government’s handling of the 2015 sacrilege and police firing cases, with Pargat among the leaders demanding accountability.
Following Sandhu’s resignation, Congress leaders said the names of former MLA Kushaldeep Singh Kiki Dhillon, Barinder Dhillon, Smit Singh and others were under consideration, and a replacement was likely to be appointed in the coming days to ensure the smooth functioning of the party organisation.
