JOIN USDisgruntled Sidhu’s silence does the talking
The AAP is learnt to have sent feelers to disgruntled former Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu through political strategies and axed former JD (U) vice-president Prashant Kishor to join the party.
The former cricketer has gone into self-imposed hibernation after he resigned as a minister in July last year amid escalating strained relations with Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.
Ahead of the 2017 Assembly elections in Punjab, it was Prashant Kishor who had mediated for talks between Sidhu and Gandhis when the former cricketer was approached by Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP to lead the party.
Sidhu, along with Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and others, has been named by the Congress in the list of star campaigners for the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections. While Amarinder will kickstart his three-day campaign in the national capital beginning February 3, it’s still unclear whether Sidhu will campaign for the Congress. His dissent from the campaign will send a clear message about his stand.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali), a breakaway faction of the 99-year old Akali Dal, has also invited Sidhu to lead the party in Punjab. In the 2017 Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP had won 20 seats, more than the SAD (Badal), with nearly 25% of the vote share.
The AAP is the principal Opposition party in this border state and Sidhu’s joining could bolster the party prospects enormously. But Sidhu is unlikely to do so. He will have to weigh his options before choosing between Congress, AAP or the SAD breakaway faction.
Sidhu’s ‘comeback’ in the Cabinet or to lead the state congress might not augur well with Amarinder given that he doesn’t anymore share a good rapport with Sidhu.