Navjot Sidhu has been handed the Power and Energy Sources portfolio, a comparatively lighter ministry.

Highlights This latest move came after Navjot Singh Sidhu went incommunicado

Mr Sidhu was earlier stripped of a key ministerial portfolio

He has been involved in a long-running feud with Amarinder Singh

Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has been left out of eight consultative groups formed by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to expedite implementation of the state government's schemes. Mr Sidhu has gone incommunicado after he was stripped of his key ministerial portfolio amid his long-running fight with Chief Minister Singh.

Navjot Sidhu had the Local Government portfolio in the state cabinet. After his recent outbursts against the Chief Minister, he was handed the Power and Energy Sources portfolio, a comparatively lighter ministry. The leader is yet to assume his new post.

The fresh round of fight that has prompted frontal attacks from both the sides, started when Mr Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur, also a Congress leader, held Amarinder Singh responsible for denying her Lok Sabha ticket from Chandigarh.

During the campaign, Mr Sidhu had targeted the Chief Minister, questioning why no criminal case was registered against former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son Sukhbir Singh Badal over the sacrilege of Guru Granth Sahib and the police-firing incidents of 2015.

"If he was a real Congressman, he should have chosen a better time to air his grievances instead of just ahead of voting in Punjab," the Chief Minister had said during an informal interaction with reporters.

After the Congress won eight of Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats, Amarinder Singh had said the party could have done better in the urban areas of the state, especially Bathinda, if not for Navjot Sidhu's remarks on Pakistan and the ongoing investigation into the Guru Granth Sahib desecration.

In response, Mr Sidhu said he was being singled out.

Before being stripped of his ministry, Mr Sidhu had skipped a crucial cabinet meet and chose to have a Facebook Live session with the media. "I cannot be taken for granted... I have been singled out in spite of collective responsibility," he had said.

With inputs from ANI