Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh seemed to demote Navjot Singh Sidhu in a ministry shuffle on Thursday, appearing to nudge their bitter tussle beyond the possibility of reconciliation.

Sidhu skipped Thursday’s cabinet meeting amid speculation that Amarinder intended to change his portfolios. Hours after the meeting, the chief minister announced Sidhu’s removal from the ministry of local governance, a department considered crucial for urban development.

Sidhu also lost culture and tourism, and has been given power and renewable energy resources.

While local governance has been allocated to Brahm Mohindra, tourism and culture have gone to Charanjit Singh Channi, both known Amarinder loyalists. While several ministers had their assignments shuffled, Sidhu is certain to see his portfolio changes as a demotion.

Sidhu, who has publicly objected to being singled out for the Congress’s poorer-than-expected Lok Sabha results from Punjab, had argued against any change of portfolios by presenting his own report card before the media on Thursday.

People who know him say the feisty cricketer turned television celebrity turned politician would not swallow the punishment silently unless the central leadership persuades him to. On his own, they said, Sidhu would prefer to resign from the cabinet and mount an attack on Amarinder.

Sidhu had declared his aggressive intent by defiantly holding a news conference while the cabinet meeting was under way. There, he challenged the perception that he had harmed the Congress’s prospects in the general election and presented a report on the performances of the departments under his charge.

“I cannot be taken for granted.… I have been singled out in spite of collective responsibility,” he said.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh condemns the Pulwama terror attack in the state Assembly in Chandigarh on Friday, February 15, 2019. (PTI)

Amarinder had publicly blamed Sidhu for the party’s defeats in certain seats in the state. While Sidhu had chosen to campaign for the Congress outside Punjab, he had highlighted that he had not been called on to canvass for party candidates in his own state.

Sidhu had been miffed as his wife, Navjot Kaur, had been denied a nomination to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Amarinder had conveyed his displeasure at Sidhu’s indiscipline to the party central leadership and sought punishment for him. But the high command has not acted so far, letting the feud in the state escalate.

With Rahul Gandhi offering to resign as Congress president, the entire high command structure has virtually been in a state of paralysis, anyway.

Rahul begins a three-day visit to his constituency, Wayanad in Kerala, from Friday but there is no clarity on his resignation. The party insists that he is still the president.

Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar too resigned after his defeat to actor Sunny Deol from the Gurdaspur seat. State-in-charge Asha Kumari lacks the stature to control Amarinder or Sindhu, who report directly to the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Asked why the crisis was being allowed to deepen by the day, a senior state Congress politician said: “The problem is simple — one of them is Navjot Singh Sidhu and the other is behaving like Navjot Singh Sidhu. How can you solve the problem if neither behaves sensibly?”

Within the central leadership, most of the seniors back Amarinder and believe that Sidhu should learn to accept the chief minister’s authority instead of “flaunting his rapport with Rahul and Priyanka”.

While Amarinder too has expressed his disapproval of Sidhu’s conduct several times, the maverick minister has refused to curb his rebellious instincts.

Using his flare for the telling phrase, he has made it clear through his tweets over the past few days that he is not going to take a step back.

His latest tweet said: “Bahadur kab kisi ka asra ehsan lete hain/ Usi ko kar gujaraten hain jo man mein than lete hain (When do the brave seek help from others? They do whatever they choose to).”

Sidhu cited several Urdu couplets to suggest he was being targeted without reason and tried to portray Amarinder as the tormentor without mentioning names.