Former Punjab chief minister and now senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Capt Amarinder Singh must be the happiest man today, feeling greatly vindicated after Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu’s remark that getting the chief ministerial chair needs Rs 500 crore cash. Although she did not specify which party she was talking about in particular, this certainly is embarrassing for the Congress, the party she and her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu still belong to.
It was primarily and mainly because of Sidhu that the Gandhi family virtually put a generational relationship with Capt Amarinder at stake. While everything was going well in Punjab in 2021 ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled next year, with the perception building up that the Congress might return to power, the party appointed Sidhu as the PCC president in July replacing Sunil Jakhar.
Sidhu created problems for his party’s government and the then chief minister Capt Amarinder from day one, which eventually led to his ungraceful exit within two months, in September 2021, just six months ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections.
Thus began the decline of the Congress. Sidhu could not become the chief minister himself as the party opted for Charanjit Singh Channi despite majority of the party legislators favouring Sunil Jakhar. Jakhar was denied the chief ministerial position because, it was said, he was not a Sikh. A deeply hurt Jakhar, who was a second-generation dyed-in-wool Congressman and secular to the core, felt disillusioned and eventually he left the party and later joined the BJP. He is now the Punjab BJP president.
It is obvious that Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu is speaking for her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu was propelled into politics by the BJP, which fielded him from Amritsar in 2004 General Elections. He later resigned after having been convicted in a road rage case. The conviction was later suspended and he contested the by-election in 2007 and won again. In 2009 he was re-elected from Amritsar. In 2014, the BJP denied him the ticket and fielded Arun Jaitley instead from Amritsar. Jaitley lost to Capt Amarinder. Sidhu did not campaign for Jaitley, who was greatly hurt.
Later, the BJP nominated Sidhu to the Rajya Sabha and he was tipped to be a Central minister. However, as ill luck would have it, he fell for the chief ministerial temptations offered by the Aam Aadmi Party ahead of the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal reportedly offered to project him as the chief ministerial face if he joined the party.
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Sidhu resigned from the Rajya Sabha. The AAP, with its mastery over political communication, welcomed his resignation. The AAP welcomed his resignation, but worded the “welcome” statement in a vague and ambiguous manner to convey the impression that he had already joined the AAP, thus shutting the BJP doors for him for good. Once having resigned from the BJP, the AAP reportedly refused to announce him as the chief ministerial candidate before the elections.
Since he had burnt his bridges with the BJP, the Congress was the only option left. The Congress was in a comeback mode in Punjab. There were already strong indicators that the party will storm to power in the state. Capt Amarinder strongly and publicly opposed Sidhu’s induction into the party. He said it on record that the “Sidhu couple” will create problems for the Congress the way they had done in the BJP. Capt Amarinder’s words proved prophetic and they still continue to be.
Sidhu used his close proximity with party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, which he flaunts so proudly, to become the Punjab Congress president, against the wishes of the then chief minister Capt Amarinder. That marked the beginning of the decline of the party in Punjab ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections.
Navjot Kaur Sidhu’s statement could not have come at a wrong time for the Congress. This has left the party red faced. There has not been anything officially from the Congress so far. Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring avoided any comment leaving it for the party high command to react. However, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar reacted sharply saying such people deserved to be in mental asylum.
Sidhu proved to be a disaster as the Punjab Congress president. The party suffered a humiliating defeat under his leadership in 2022. The party tally came down to mere 18 in 2022 from 77 in 2017. He would often claim credit for the party’s phenomenal victory in 2017, while fact was that the party had contested the elections under the leadership of Capt Amarinder. Besides, the rise of the AAP at the cost of the Shiromani Akali Dal had greatly benefitted the Congress. Under his exclusive leadership in 2022, party was reduced to mere 18 seats, one of the worst performances.
After being replaced as the PCC president in 2022, Sidhu has taken a sabbatical from politics. He has returned to the cricket commentary box as also the Kapil Sharma’s comedy show. However, he does not seem to have given up on his galloping political ambitions to be the chief minister of Punjab. His wife made it categorically clear that he will return to politics if he is announced as the chief ministerial candidate.
Given the way things work in the Congress, his proximity to Priyanka Gandhi and the past record of the party, many Congress leaders with their own ambitions have already started feeling jittery. They have a reason and history as proof that anything is possible in the Congress that may even end up upsetting the party’s own applecart the way it was upset it in 2021 when Capt Amarinder was unceremoniously removed as the chief minister.
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