With the resignation of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu from the Rajya Sabha giving a new turn to politics in Punjab, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Tuesday said that the state's people would never forgive "opportunist and treacherous political leaders who ditch their mother party for the sake of short term benefits".
Responding to the resignation by Sidhu, Badal said that the leaders without any principles could never succeed in the politics as the Punjabis have strong disliking for them.
He said that Sidhu's resignation would hardly impact the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in Punjab.
The chief minister said that he had not yet received the resignation of Chief Parliamentary Secretary Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who is the wife of Sidhu.
NAVJOT KAUR SIDHU: CM PARKASH SINGH BADAL WILL BE HAPPY IF SIDHU AND I LEAVE PUNJAB
Cricketer turned politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife said on Tuesday that Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would be happy if she and her husband left the state, adding that he cannot accept any person working better than his son.
“His intentions were clear from the very beginning. People will come to know his intentions now. Leave the resignation; he will be very happy if I and my husband leave Punjab. Leave us, anyone who wants to do well for Punjab or wants to rise above his son, he cannot accept that. He will not accept any person who can work better than his children,” Navjot Kaur Sidhu told here.
“If he would have really treated me like his daughter then he would have come to my constituency and seen the agony of my people, when I needed him. People elected me and made me MLA, I can’t just go,” she added.
Navjot Kaur earlier today said that Navjot Sidhu was not ready for any other option other than to serve Punjab.
She, however, also clarified that she hasn’t resigned from the BJP.
“He has resigned from the Rajya Sabha.it means the same that he has resigned from the BJP. I haven’t resigned from the party. It was his decision. His vision and mentality is very clear that he wants to serve Punjab. He was not ready for any other option other than Punjab. The party was very clear that they want to work with Akali Dal, so that was the only choice left for him that he wants to serve Punjab,” she told.
Responding to a poser on whether Sidhu will now join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Navjot said that he would make his stand clear in this regard very soon before the media.
Navjot further said that Sidhu always wanted that the BJP top brass impose their trust on him, adding that he wanted to serve Punjab.
According to reports, Sidhu, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha, might join the AAP in Punjab.
The former cricketer, who was thrice the Lok Sabha member from the BJP, was asked to step away from contesting the polls in Amritsar during the 2014 general election to make way for fellow member Arun Jaitley.
AAP LAUDS SIDHU FOR TAKING FIRM STAND AGAINST BJP
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday lauded the guts of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who took a bold step against all odds by resigning from the Rajya Sabha.
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann lauded Sidhu’s courage for taking a stand against the system.
“Sidhu ji has proved that he is not like others who failed to leave their position due to lust for power. We welcome such endeavours,” he said.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday lauded the guts of Navjot Singh Sidhu, who took a bold step against all odds by resigning from the Rajya Sabha.
AAP leader Bhagwant Mann lauded Sidhu’s courage for taking a stand against the system.
“Sidhu ji has proved that he is not like others who failed to leave their position due to lust for power. We welcome such endeavours,” he said.
SIDHU TO CAMPAIGN FOR AAP, WIFE TO CONTEST PUNJAB POLLS
Both Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur, who is a BJP MLA from Amritsar, are likely to join the AAP next month, but only the latter may contest the elections on an AAP ticket.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, who recently resigned from the Rajya Sabha, is likely to join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) next month, while top AAP sources told ANI that he might not contest the Punjab assembly elections in 2017.
According to sources, both Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur, who is a BJP MLA from Amritsar, are likely to join the AAP next month, but only the latter may contest the elections on an AAP ticket.
Earlier on Tuesday, Navjot Kaur also told that she was still with the BJP.
Sources said Navjot Kaur was abstaining from joining the AAP before August perhaps to avert bypoll in her constituency before the scheduled assembly elections, because her joining the AAP will lead to her disqualification under the Anti-Defection Law.
The AAP Constitution too doesn’t allow two members of a family to hold any office within the party, including the elected post, sources added.
They, meanwhile, refuted that Sidhu would be projected as the AAP chief ministerial candidate in Punjab, adding that he would be actively campaigning for party candidates in the elections.
Sidhu’s campaign may help AAP increase its tally as he has been attacking the incumbent Akali government openly.
On announcing the name of the chief ministerial candidate, sources said so far, there has not been a discussion in the party over an advertisement as far as projecting a chief ministerial candidate is concerned.
There is also “possibility of a revolt in the AAP, if the party projects a chief ministerial candidate” before the Punjab polls, they said.
Meanwhile, the party is set to release its first list of around 30 candidates for the Punjab elections by the end of July.
NAVJOT SIDHU LIKELY TO BE AAP'S CHIEF MINISTERIAL FACE IN PUNJAB
On a day when AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal was seeking penance at the holiest of Sikh shrines, the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, a political drama was unfolding in New Delhi that could change the course of Punjab politics ahead of the state assembly elections.
The resignation of popular cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu from the Rajya Sabha less than three months after he was nominated to the Upper House of parliament by the BJP government at the Centre has opened up the political scenario in Punjab once again.
With a senior AAP leader confirming that Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu -- a Punjab BJP legislator who is also the chief parliamentary secretary (just below a minister) in the Punjab government -- were all set to join the Aam Aadmi Party before the assembly polls, the sudden resignation of the BJP MP has cleared a lot of things.
The AAP, which is posing a serious challenge to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and the opposition Congress in Punjab ahead of assembly polls, due nearly next year, could well be on course to crown Sidhu as its chief ministerial candidate.
The AAP's confidence in Punjab is not misplaced. It was Punjab's electorate which gave entry to the AAP in the Lok Sabha in the 2014 elections. The party won four Lok Sabha seats -- all from Punjab, which has a total of 13 in the lower house.
Sidhu, three-time Lok Sabha member from Amritsar, had been slighted by the ruling dispensation in Punjab -- the Shiromani Akali Dal and its alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) -- in the past few years.
The Sidhu couple has been critical of the Akali Dal-BJP alliance government in Punjab headed by the country's oldest Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal.
A popular Jat-Sikh face, Sidhu paid the price of his run-ins with Punjab's dominant Badal family. He had verbal duels with the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and his powerful brother-in-law Bikram Majithia, who is the younger brother of Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
In recent months, political grapevine had it that Sidhu was in talks with the AAP and even the Congress. There was no strong denial or confirmation of this from any side. But the BJP put the speculation to rest by nominating the chirpy Sidhu, who is a popular TV celebrity and cricket commentator, to the Rajya Sabha.
In the AAP's scheme of things, Sidhu fits the bill quite well. He is known as an honest and upright political leader, is outspoken, has a popular appeal, connects well through his speeches and is a Jat-Sikh face -- all ingredients for a good chief ministerial candidate in Punjab.
Having ridden piggy-back to power with the Shiromani Akali Dal since 2007, the Punjab state BJP has resigned itself to playing second fiddle to the Akalis.
As Punjab's political scene is heating up for the assembly polls, everyone knows that the state is headed for a triangular showdown among the Akali Dal, Congress and the AAP. The BJP is nowhere as a standalone entity.
The problem for the BJP in Punjab is that it is led by a bunch of leaders who have little or no standing in state politics, leave alone having any recognition at the national level.
The party leadership, in the past few years, deliberately chose to ignore and even embarrass its best known face in the state, the thrice-elected Lok Sabha member Navjot Singh Sidhu.
In the 2014 general elections, the BJP chose to dump Sidhu and fielded Arun Jaitley, now the powerful Finance Minister in the Modi government.
Jaitley, pitted against Congress stalwart and former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, lost badly by a margin of over one lakh votes. This was Jaitley's maiden foray into popular electoral politics and he started with a big loss.
Sidhu had refused to campaign for Jaitley, whom he called his political mentor.
