The 2022 Punjab assembly elections are set for a grand fight between two senior leaders of the Congress party – Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu. Whether both of them remain in the Congress party or one will seek exit before the election is yet to be seen but the separate hoardings for both leaders can be seen in the streets of Punjab.
As per a report by ANI, “Separate hoardings with CM Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on them, come up in Patiala in the run-up to the 2022 Punjab election.”
Separate hoardings with CM Capt Amarinder Singh and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu on them, come up in Patiala in the run-up to the 2022 Punjab election.
The CM's daughter, Jai Inder Kaur says, "My father will contest from Patiala and I will campaign for him." pic.twitter.com/TfwI0CdTKw
— ANI (@ANI) June 10, 2021
Also, the CM’s daughter, Jai Inder Kaur says, “My father will contest from Patiala and I will campaign for him.”
Previously, the Punjab Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, which comes under the direct control of the chief minister, decided to fast-track its investigation into some ‘shady deals’ involving the Sidhu couple and their close associates. The leads with the Vigilance Bureau (VB) are not new in nature. However, Sidhu’s tirade against the chief minister seems to have acted as a catalyst into the bureau giving a fresh push to the investigations.
Sources quoted by Republic World said that the vigilance team was probing Sidhu, his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, his OSD Bunny Sandhu, PA Gaurav and clerk Rajiv Kumar for five alleged shady deals by favouring certain firms in his tenure as minister. Sidhu retaliated to the probe saying, “Most welcome. Pls do your best Capt Amarinder Singh”. Interestingly, the fast-tracking of investigations by the VB comes in the backdrop of at least seven state ministers calling for action to be taken against Sidhu.
A few weeks ago, after Sidhu made statements against Amarinder Singh in public, the CM of Punjab made his intentions clear that if Sidhu joins any other party to contest election against him — he will certainly lose his deposit at the seat.
“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.
Reported extensively by TFI, Sidhu has been extremely vocal against the Punjab government’s functioning and especially Captain Amarinder Singh even when he was a cabinet-level minister — although he had to pay the price for it after he was ejected from the cabinet by the two time CM.
Read More: The little revolution of Navjot Singh Sidhu has failed, now he and his men await punishment
Amarinder had divested Sidhu of the Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted him the power and new and renewable energy portfolio. However, Sidhu had refused to assume the charge and resigned.
If the current crisis between the two camps is not resolved, the Congress party would be fighting the 2022 assembly election against the Congress party and amid this factionalism, the opposition parties like AAP and Akali Dal, which are very weak at the moment and do not have a leader who can take on Amarinder Singh, might eventually win. And this will be a huge loss for the Congress party which is already receding from the map of India under the incompetent leadership of Rahul Gandhi.