NavjotSingh Sidhu started his political journey in 2004 by joining BJP on theinspiration of senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley. Sidhu had contested fromAmritsar Lok Sabha seat and defeated senior Congress leader Raghunandan LalBhatia by 1,09,532 votes. Sidhu had resigned from the Lok Sabha before theSupreme Court ruled in the Patiala case of an involuntary murder case.
Later,Sidhu contested the by poll from Amritsar Lok Sabha in 2007 after the SupremeCourt allowed him to contest. In this election, he defeated Congress FinanceMinister Surinder Singla. In 2009, Sidhu defeated O P Soni of Congress party toreach Parliament for the third time. In 2014, the BJP did not give a ticket to Sidhu.He was later made a member of the Rajya Sabha by the BJP but Sidhu resignedfrom the Rajya Sabha and joined the Congress in 2017.
Withthe formation of the Congress government, Sidhu was made the Local GovernmentMinister. Sidhu resigned from the Cabinet in 2019 after a disagreement withChief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
NavjotSingh Sidhu has an old association with controversies as a player and as apolitician. As a player, Sidhu refused to play under the captaincy of MohammadAzharuddin and returned back to India during England tour. While representingBJP, Sidhu always put pressure on the party to break the alliance with theAkali Dal. When Arun Jaitley came from Amritsar to contest at the behest of theBadals in 2014, Sidhu never appeared with his political guru for campaigning.
Afterhis joining the Congress party in 2019, Sidhu remarked to Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh that he was the Captain of Punjab but his (Sidhu's) Captain wasRahul Gandhi. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sidhu had opened the frontduring the election campaign in Bathinda by claiming 75-25 shares in thebusiness of the Captain and the Badals. After losing five seats in the LokSabha, the captain reshuffled the portfolios of cabinet ministers. The LocalGovernment Department was withdrawn from Sidhu in protest of which he hadresigned from the post of Cabinet Minister.
Withthe change of captaincy of the state president, political equations in thestate will also set to change. With the divide between Sidhu and Captaindeepening, the focus will now be on how the two leaders will work together in astate going to assembly polls in about six months.
(ByDinesh Sharma)