Sidhu’s big plan: Key AAP role for wife, Rajya Sabha for self

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur could be a key player for the Aam Aadmi Party in the Punjab Assembly elections early next year.

A highly placed source said that after Mr Sidhu, a former BJP Rajya Sabha member, conveyed to the AAP leadership that he was not looking for any post in the outfit, there were indications that his wife, who is a doctor and also a member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, could be projected as the AAP candidate for deputy chief minister to take on the BJP-Akali Dal alliance in the state. Mr Sidhu has, however, conveyed to the AAP leadership that they could consider nominating him to the Rajya Sabha next year. Mr Sidhu had resigned from the Rajya Sabha on July 18. AAP insiders said there is a strong possibility that Mr Sidhu could be the party’s star campaigner for the Punjab polls. “Since Sidhu-ji has said he does not want any post, he could be the party’s star campaigner to take the steam out of both the BJP-Akali combine and the Congress,” said an AAP insider. Asked what demands Mr Sidhu had made of the AAP leadership to join the new outfit, a close confidant of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “All he has conveyed is that if the party feels so, it could nominate him to the Rajya Sabha next year.”

Mr Sidhu had recently said he had quit the Rajya Sabha as he was asked to stay away from Punjab. “How can I leave the people who voted me in four times,” Mr Sidhu had said. His wife had said that his quitting the Rajya Sabha meant he was quitting the BJP.

Though Mr Sidhu has not made any statement about his course of action, there are indications that he could announce his decision anytime between August 10 and August 15. Asked why he has chosen this specific time-frame to make his decision public, an AAP functionary said it was only because party supremo Arvind Kejriwal was going out of Delhi to undergo a 10-day Vipasana course from August 1. “Once our leader is back, Mr Sidhu is expected to take a final call on joining AAP.”

What has surprised many within the AAP is Mr Sidhu’s recent meetings with close confidants of former chief minister Amarinder Singh, who had earlier invited him to join the Congress. “Let’s wait and watch till he makes an official announcement about his future political line of action,” a senior AAP functionary said.

On the party’s choice to project Dr Navjot Kaur as a key contender in Punjab, another AAP leader said that like his party she, too, had been critical of the way the Punjab government has been functioning. “She herself announced her resignation from the BJP on her Facebook page before launching an attack on CM Prakash Singh Badal in another post.”

Dr Kaur, who along with her husband had not been enjoying the best of relations with her party’s Punjab unit as well as the SAD leadership, had posted a message on April 1 saying, “Finally, I have resigned from the BJP. The burden is over.”

The AAP leadership is also impressed by the way Dr Kaur had exposed through a sting operation a senior state government medical officer running a private hospital in Mohali. The then Union health minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad, had invited her to become a member of the National PNDT committee for reforms in the health department.