E-Paper
Sidhu, wife finally quit BJP officially
NEW DELHI: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife formally resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
NEW DELHI: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife formally resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday.
“I am an individual; I have only picked up issues of my zone. I am not being allowed to do,” the 52-year-old’s wife, Navjot Kaur Sidhu, said.
“Whenever I told Badal sahab people interfere in my work, he said no, you are like my daughter... Thekadars are threatened that your work will stop if you stand with her,” she told reporters.
Sidhu recently said Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal wanted only “yes men” and asked him to not fight the upcoming Punjab polls in return of a ministerial position for his wife.
At the launch of his new political forum Awaaz-e-Punjab, Sidhu said his dramatic resignation from the Rajya Sabha in July had nothing to do with Kejriwal, quashing months of speculation about him joining the AAP after quitting BJP.
The three-time MP from Amritsar has joined hands with three top voices against the state’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance — former India hockey captain and suspended Akali MLA Pargat Singh and Ludhiana-based powerful independent state lawmakers and brothers Simarjeet and Balwinder Singh Bains.
Punjab goes to polls early next year and the AAP and Congress are looking to end a decade-long rule by the Badals. The politically nascent AAP has been on the rise with thousands flocking to its rallies but has been hit recently by controversy surrounding the removal of its state chief.
