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Lok Sabha election: Sidhu to fire up Congress poll campaign from April 10
Meets Rahul, says his wife not keen to contest from Punjab but will abide by party’s diktat .
After denial of ticket to his wife from Chandigarh, Punjab local bodies minister Navjot Singh Sidhu met Congress president Rahul Gandhi late on Saturday evening after the latter flew back to New Delhi from Orissa.
In an hour-long meeting, Sidhu is learnt to have discussed the party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. On Sunday, he tweeted: “The best way to discharge your duty is to dispense with it. Met Rahulji. He asked me to campaign extensively and meet Ahmad Patel.”
Sidhu tweeted about his meeting with Patel too and said he will be in the line of duty for 40 days from April 10. Patel is learnt to have told Sidhu that he is in high demand and the party would need him to campaign with just one-day break in a week.
Those privy to the discussions said Rahul and Sidhu discussed party’s decision to field veteran leader and former Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal from Chandigarh and Sidhu assured to support Bansal’s campaign. On whether his wife, Navjot Kaur, would be interested in contesting from any of the remaining four seats in Punjab, Sidhu is learnt to have said that she was not keen but would abide by the party’s diktat.
After meeting Rahul, Sidhu said he is all geared up for the campaign blitz. In an indication that the couple could soften their stand, he said: “My wife has already cleared the air on not contesting from anywhere else. But the party is supreme and we would do what Rahul tells us.”
Coming a month after Rahul’s rally in Moga on March 7, the meeting ended all speculation on Rahul not backing Sidhu’s offensive against the BJP on the Balakot airstrike. Feeling snubbed after not being allowed to speak at the rally, the minister has gone incommunicado and emerged only after Bansal was declared the candidate for Chandigarh. He attributed his absence to a viral relapse and dental treatment.
