Sidhu declines Cong's ticket offer to wife

Former cricket and Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu has declined an offer from the Congress for a ticket to his namesake wife Navjot Kaur to contest from Bathinda parliamentary constituency.

Sidhu was keen on a Congress ticket for his wife to contest from Chandigarh. The party refused to oblige him even as Navjot Kaur had actively started campaigning in Chandigarh.

Bathinda Lok Sabha seat is likely to be one of the most fiercely contested poll turfs.

Union minister Harsimran Kaur, who is the daughter-in-law of former chief minister Prakash Singh Badal, is likely to be announced the SAD candidate from Bathinda.

Congress is pondering over Badal’s estranged nephew and cabinet minister Manpreet Badal from Bathinda.

Manpreet, too, is learnt to have expressed his inability to contest the parliamentary elections.