Won’t stand with thieves, don’t consider Warring Punjab Cong chief: Navjot Kaur Sidhu
After suspension, former MLA says in touch with party high command, which has been ‘misled’ by state unit leaders.
A day after she was placed under suspension for anti-party remarks, Congress leader and former MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu attacked Punjab unit leaders, including president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, accusing them of misleading the high command.
Navjot Kaur is the wife of former Punjab Congress president and ex-India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu. On Monday, the Punjab Congress suspended her from its primary membership for her “ ₹500 crore for chief minister’s chair” remark that sparked a political row.
“I am in touch with the party high command and apprised central leaders about my statements, which were twisted. I’ve told them that Sidhus won’t side with thieves. I don’t consider Raja Warring the Punjab party president. There are four-five leaders, who are harming the party, and if the party wants to make a government in the state, it should be sidelining such leaders,” she said addressing a press conference in Chandigarh.
Referring to the legal notice from Gurdaspur Congress MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who is also the party’s in-charge for Rajasthan, over her statements in the media levelling corruption charges against him, Navjot Kaur said: “At present, I am reverting to Randhawa. He was a follower of my husband and is now speaking against me. I will pay him back in the same coin.”
Regarding her controversial statement, she claimed that when she went to meet governor Gulab Chand Kataria, her statements were distorted by the media.
Moreover, she claimed that those who are bothered by her statements own 10,000 acres of land in the Shivalik range, and now, in collaboration with Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann want to legalise the land, but she stands firmly against it.
Navjot Kaur Sidhu said that she wanted to raise the issues with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, but before that, she got an appointment to meet the governor. “I was hoping that Rahul Gandhi would address these issues and become the ‘hero’... He was misguided by people around him, resulting in a delay. Until then, I got my appointment with the governor. I wanted Rahul Gandhi to give this presentation there because it is a matter of Punjab’s victory,” she said.
She said she had only attacked the Aam Aadmi Party government for usurping prime land near Chandigarh to help the land mafia. Some Congress leaders who also encroached on the land twisted my statement and used it against me. “I have never said that someone has asked for money from us. I replied to a question that everyone in Punjab wants to see Navjot Singh Sidhu as CM and I said that you need to spend ₹500 crore and we don’t have such black money. Where have I said that someone asked us for money?” she said.
“The entire overseas Congress and high command leaders are with me. 70% of Punjab Congress is with me. I have spoken the truth, now the ball is in the high command’s court,” she said.
Asked about Navjot Singh Sidhu’s stand, she said he backed her as she had spoken her mind in the interest of the Congress. She claimed that in the 2022 assembly elections, 15 Congress leaders worked against Navjot Singh Sidhu to defeat him by helping his Shiromani Akali Dal rival Bikram Singh Majithia.
