In the last few years, the Aam Aadmi Party has emerged as a strong contender in Punjab. In the last assembly election, the Kejriwal led party emerged as the opposition party with 22 seats in the assembly of 117 and a 25 per cent vote share. Akali Dal, the party that had ruled the state of Punjab alternatively with Congress for decades, was pushed to the third position with only 18 seats. However, the major problem with AAP in Punjab is that it does not have a CM face in the state. AAP leaders aren’t popular or powerful enough to position themselves against Amarinder Singh or the Badal family.
Therefore, if the party wants to be a major contender in the 2022 assembly election, it needs a CM face, and this vacuum might be filled by Navjot Singh Sidhu, the cricketer turned politician who jumped from BJP to Congress and now looking for another leap.
In the last few months, Sidhu has rallied many state leaders against Amarinder Singh, the highly popular CM of the state, and has made remarks against him on several issues, especially for not bringing the guilty to justice in the Bargari Sacrilege case.
On the other hand, Amarinder Singh, who is known for combative politics and does not like dissenters, openly challenged Sidhu to contest against him in the 2022 assembly election from Patiala, his stronghold. “I don’t know where he will go or which party he will join. Akali Dal is upset with him and BJP won’t accept him… so most likely AAP. If he wants to contest against me from Patiala he will meet the same fate as General JJ Singh, who lost his security deposits,” CM Amarinder Singh said in an interview to a private channel.
Navjot Singh Sidhu is the kind of politician that the Aam Aadmi Party is always keen to hire given his credentials on various issues that would appeal to the party’s voter base, especially the extremist segments of Sikh society who demand Khalistan and actively seek support from Pakistan. Moreover, Sidhu is allegedly an opportunist, just like Arvind Kejriwal. The kind of politics that Sidhu professes and the politics of AAP are the same. Thus, he will be a perfect fit for the party.
Recently, Amarinder Singh called Sidhu an “opportunist”. “Sidhu is an opportunist. He is attacking me and indirectly attacking my leadership… what does he think of himself?” Amarinder Singh said.
On the invitation of Pakistan’s Foreign Office for the swearing-in ceremony of Imran Khan, Amarinder Singh had vehemently rejected the invitation by citing the continuous terror attacks from across the border. However, calling it a personal invite from a dear friend, Sidhu not only accepted the invitation but also attended the ceremony.
Sidhu is waging a fight against Amarinder Singh with few other influential leaders like Pradesh Congress Committee chief Pratap Singh Bajwa and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo on his side.
However, given the popularity of Amarinder Singh, under whose leadership Congress won a humongous majority in the recent Punjab local body election, the defection of Sidhu or a few other Congress leaders makes no difference to him. Though, there are high chances that Sidhu will not succeed but at least he can become the CM candidate by defecting to AAP along with other dissenters of the Congress party.
