CHANDIGARH: The first voice against former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu’s rider that his forum Awaaz-e-Punjab will have no truck with the Congress as long as it is led by its state chief Captain Amarinder Singh has come from within the family.
A cousin of the cricketer-turned-politician’s wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has claimed that Dr Sidhu had “leaked” details about the campaign of BJP candidate Arun Jaitley to rival Amarinder during the 2014 Lok Sabha election of Amritsar.
In emails made available to HT, Kamal Virk (60) corresponds with event organisers for Sidhu’s motivational speeches and the British High Commission as Navjot Singh Sidhu’s personal secretary.
An email dated May 29, 2013, to the High Commission reads: “I am Kamal Virk, personal secretary to MP Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is a diplomatic passport holder. I humbly submit that I erroneously did not keep track of validity of his UK visa.”
But emails sent by Virk during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to Amarinder’s team have details on Jaitley’s daily meetings and programmes. Those dated April 16, 17, 18 and 20 have Jaitley’s schedule.
She claims Jaitley’s appearance on the TV show ‘Aap ki Adalat’ was kept under wraps. Her email dated April 18, 2014 to Captain’s close aide reads: “Sent a message to Rana Gurjit Singh to depute some intelligent people to ask questions in Aap ki Adalat programme... pls take it as very important...”. Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit was Amarinder’s poll coordinator.
{{/usCountry}}She claims Jaitley’s appearance on the TV show ‘Aap ki Adalat’ was kept under wraps. Her email dated April 18, 2014 to Captain’s close aide reads: “Sent a message to Rana Gurjit Singh to depute some intelligent people to ask questions in Aap ki Adalat programme... pls take it as very important...”. Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjit was Amarinder’s poll coordinator.
{{/usCountry}}“I was staying at the Sidhu residence in Amritsar and campaigning openly for Captain. Noni (Dr Sidhu) had asked her secretary, Sushil, to provide details of Jaitley’s programmes to me. Why are they gunning for Amarinder now,” Virk said.
Amarinder had led from Amritsar East constituency of Dr Navjot Kaur by 32,000 votes and defeated Jaitley by over 1 lakh votes. Virk claims the Sidhus had started hobnobbing with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as early as October last year.
Dr Kaur rubbished Virk’s assertions and dubbed her as a distant relative.
“There was no information on Jaitley that I could pass on to her. I am in the BJP while she was earlier a volunteer of AAP and later came to support Amarinder. She lives in Delhi and used to arrange motivational speeches for my husband for a commission. I don’t need her to arrange a meeting with Kejriwal. She is saying all this now as she was working for Congress to get a ticket,” she said.