Navjot Singh Sidhu plans new front in Punjab, jolt to AAP

Cricketer-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, formerly of the BJP, signalled the formation of a new political front in Punjab along with some former Akali leaders, including Olympian and suspended MLA Pargat Singh and Independent MLAs Balwinder Singh Bains and Simarjit Singh Bains from Ludhiana, popularly known as the Bains brothers.

The formation of the new party/front, whose name is yet to be announced and which will be launched on September 9, is a setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, that expected Sidhu to join its ranks after his exit from the BJP. The cricketer-politician’s wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, a Punjab BJP MLA, shared a bright poster that reads “Awaz-e-Punjab” (Voice of Punjab). It shows Sidhu dressed in black, flanked by former hockey great and close friend Pargat Singh, and brothers Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains of Ludhiana.

The new front will take on the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance, Congress and AAP against the traditional politics of “deceit, corruption and moral turpitude”. Simarjit Bains told reporters Friday that Navjot Sidhu will be the new party’s presumptive CM candidate. “We are in talks with all like-minded people to form a non-Akali, non-Congress, non-AAP political front,” he said.

With this, Punjab’s political dynamics is set to change and lead to a four-cornered contest in the Assembly elections next year. Some disgruntled leaders of other parties, including beleaguered AAP ex-convenor Sucha Singh Chhottepur, are said to be backing the new front.

Navjot Sidhu had quit the Rajya Sabha after leaving the BJP some time ago and it was speculated that he might join the AAP. But his negotiations with the AAP didn’t work out, with sources saying his entry faced a lot of resistance from the party’s Punjab leaders. The Congress too made overtures to him, but this was not a serious option as most of his political life had been spent opposing the Congress.

The Akali Dal said a new front’s formation only “symbolises the utter confusion in Opposition ranks caused by the quiet success of the SAD’s constructive three-fold agenda of development, social welfare and governance”. Its general secretary Harcharan Singh Bains said: “If anything, the new front’s formation is a rebuff to those like Capt. Amarinder Singh and AAP, who were bending over backwards to beg for the support of political castaways.”