Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu has been completely ignored in the new Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) body in which Amarinder Raja warring has been retained as the PPCC chief and Partap Bajwa as the Leader of Opposition.
Political analysts are seeing this as an end of the political career for Navjot Singh Sidhu in the Congress.
A couple of months ago, his wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu had publicly accused leaders of her own Congress party of wrongdoing, which had triggered her suspension.
Dr Sidhu had announced her resignation from the Congress on February 1, which came nearly two months after she was suspended for her sensational remark. She was suspended from the primary membership of the party in December after she had remarked that “a briefcase full of Rs 500 crore” was required to become the CM of the state, which her husband could not do.
Former PPCC chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has largely been keeping away from active politics after losing the 2022 Assembly election from the Amritsar East assembly segment, which he had represented as a Congress leader in the earlier term. His wife had represented the same constituency as a BJP candidate after the 2012 Assembly elections as a BJP candidate.
Political analysts are of the view that the husband-wife were testing the waters ahead of the elections to understand the kind of support they receive from Congress leaders and the public.
In April, Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu was seen trying to strike a connection with people of Amritsar by occasionally uploading videos of his activities, including playing with children, enjoying a cup of tea and savouring kachori at a popular local shop — Giani tea stall.
After losing the 2022 assembly election, last major task of Navjot Sidhu for his party in Amritsar was mobilisation of local leaders, including former Deputy CM OP Soni, former Cabinet minister Rajkumar Verka, MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla, former MLAs Inderbir Singh Bularia, Sunil Dutti, Jugal Kishore Sharma, District Congress Urban president Ashwini Pappu and state general secretary Joginder Pal Dhingra to counter the moves of Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu to increase the strength of the AAP in the Municipal Corporation on April 4, 2022. However, it failed to get desired results as AAP managed to form its majority in the Municipal Corporation House, after breaking away a large number of Congress councillors.
Navjot Singh Sidhu had resigned from the BJP on September 14, 2016, citing that Punjab’s interest was more important to him than anything else. His resignation came nearly two months after he had quit from the Rajya Sabha MP post and after formation of a new political outfit – Awaz-e-Punjab. His political initiative had elicited the support of India’s former hockey captain Pargat Singh and Punjab MLAs Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwant Singh Bains.
He had left the BJP on bitter terms and unsuccessfully contested from a Congress ticket from his wife’s constituency Amritsar East.
Sidhu, who had represented Amritsar in the Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014, had accused the BJP of using him as a “decorative piece” and trying to keep him out of Punjab.
It was late senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley who was instrumental in bringing Navjot Singh Sidhu in politics who was then a prominent cricket commentator after retiring from cricket. He had fielded him from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in 2024.
The Amritsar Lok Sabha seat has largely been witnessing two-sided contests since its first Lok Sabha election in 1957. Late RL Bhatia of the Congress and Navjot Singh Sidhu, a joint candidate of the SAD-BJP, made it a one-sided contest with their individual auras.
