Chandigarh: Bhagwant Mann is not arrogant and is receptive to others' viewpoint, Congress's Navjot Sidhu said today after a meeting with the Punjab Chief Minister. After the 50-minute meeting, Mr Sidhu took a dig at the Congress and the Akalis, saying the previous chief ministers did not have time for their own MLAs and senior leaders.
Earlier today, Punjab minister Laljit Singh Bhullar had said Mr Mann would meet the cricketer-turned-politician, who is no longer an MLA, MP or a minister. After the election, Mr Sidhu even had to step down from the post of the state Congress chief.
Mr Sidhu had announced yesterday that he would meet Mr Mann to discuss matters related to the revival of the state's economy.
"I came here for Punjab's progress. What should I say about CM saab (Mann), he has no ego and arrogance. He is the same today like he was 10-15 years back and even six months back," Mr Sidhu was quoted as saying by news agency Press Trust of India. "He has as much pain as I have," he had added.
The meeting, Mr Sidhu said, was "very positive", and later tweeted:
"When a person is receptive then you do not feel the passing of 50 minutes," he said.
The issues discussed at the meet included the state's income from the liquor and sand mining sectors, cable monopoly, irregularities in the tender system and the alleged nexus between police, politicians and drug peddlers.
He said that he had been raising these issues during the previous Congress government. "I told him one thing that it is a question of Punjab's honour which should not be broken," he said.
Since the crushing defeat of the Congress in the recently concluded assembly elections, Mr Sidhu has been praising and denigrating Mr Mann in quick succession.
Last month, he had dubbed the Chief Minister a "rubber doll", accusing him of being the mouthpiece of his Aam Aadmi Party bosses in Delhi. Two days later, he called the Chief Minister an "honest man" and said he would rise above party lines and support Mr Mann in any attempt to take on the mafia in the state.