Global polls
As the world is in the midst of the ‘Great Election Year’ of 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has sounded the alarm on the perilous tight-rope walk between democratic exercises and fiscal responsibility.
As the Punjab Local government minister Navjot Singh Sidhu boycotted Amritsar mayor elections on Tuesday, his differences with state Congress leadership evidently came to fore.
Sources said the minister deliberately skipped the meeting as he was not being taken into confidence before the selection of mayor nominee. Even on Monday, just ahead of the mayoral elections, Sidhu had claimed that he had not been invited for a meeting that was scheduled to appoint the Amritsar mayor.
Sidhu had even went to say on a web channel that he red in newspapers that Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh has assigned the duty to Panchayati Raj Minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa to decide on the name of mayor in Amritsar. “I did not have any information regarding this. Whatever is the wish of Captain Sahib he can do. Sidhu had even said, “I go uninvited only to the Golden Temple or Durgiana temple. Otherwise, I don’t go anywhere uninvited. I don’t want to say anything more. I have said what I had to say.”
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Meanwhile, Amritsar Municipal Commissioner, SonaliGiri, who reports toSidhu, told The Statesman on Tuesday that she had sent invites for the mayor election even to all the legislators. “For Local government minister, his copy of letter was also sent on 20 January which was received by his personal assistant.
I had invited him personally too so that is not the issue at all here”, she said. Interestingly, the AamAadmi Party (AAP) jumped into the controversy as it invited Sidhu to join them if he feels suffocated in Congress.
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