Facing bouncers from team Congress in Punjab for his “rebellious” attitude, the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday virtually hurled the ball in the pavilion of the party’s top leadership by seeking an audience with his “captain” Rahul Gandhi.

Even as the party high command has not yet sought a report from the state unit over the ongoing war of words between the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and his Cabinet colleague Sidhu, the former cricketer has decided to reach out to the leadership on his own and is scheduled to meet Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday night at his residence in the national capital.

It has been learnt that Sidhu has been seeking Rahul Gandhi’s appointment from the past two days, and it was only in the evening that the meeting was fixed for Tuesday night.

Amidst growing chorus of initiating a strong action against Sidhu by his own party colleagues and senior party leaders, the Congress’ state leadership has, however, decided to wait till May 23 — the day results of recently-held Lok Sabha elections will be declared.

At the same time, the opposition parties in the state, including Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Punjab Ekta Party (PEP), and Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), have come out in Sidhu’s support and backing his claims of a “friendly match”.

Notably, Sidhu, while addressing an election rally in Bathinda on May 17, talked about a “friendly match” without naming anyone, while asking the electorate to “punish” the “players” who have 75:25 share.

It is believed that Sidhu, in his speech, hinted at the rumoured pact between Capt Amarinder and SAD president Sukhbir Badal to ensure victory of their wives from Patiala and Bathinda. However, Sidhu has denied having said anything that suggested a collusion between the Congress and the SAD, while blaming the media for “putting words in my mouth”.

Before that, Sidhu’s wife and former MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu had blamed Capt Amarinder and state party affairs’ in-charge Asha Kumari for playing a negative role in declining her nomination from Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat.

Rubbishing her allegations as “non-sense”, Capt Amarinder had pointed out that he had no role in the decision-making for the Chandigarh ticket, while adding that Dr Navjot was asked to contest from Bathinda or Amritsar, but she refused. Coming to his wife’s defence, Sidhu maintained that she “would never lie”.

Taking the prevailing cold war between the two senior Congress leaders to another level on the polling day, Capt Amarinder minced no words to say that the “ambitious” Sidhu might want to replace him as the Chief Minister. At the same time, he had maintained that it was on the high command to act against the Sidhu, while making it clear that the Congress has zero-tolerance policy against indiscipline.

“His ill-timed comments against me and the Punjab Congress leadership have damaged the party...If he is a real Congressmen, he should have chosen a better time to air his grievances instead of just ahead of voting in Punjab. Perhaps he is ambitious and wants to be chief minister,” Capt Amarinder had said on Sunday.

A senior Congress leader maintained that a report would be sought after the state president, and the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader regarding Sidhu’s “indiscipline act” by the state party affairs’ in-charge Asha Kumari which would then be sent to the high command for action. But that would be done only after May 23 results.

Despite addressing 100 rallies and press conferences across the country as the Congress’ ‘star campaigner’ during 2019 general elections, Sidhu gave a miss to his home state. He addressed the party’s first rally at Bathinda only after Priyanka Gandhi asked him to.

MORE LEADERS LASHED OUT AT SIDHU

After four Cabinet Ministers and other senior leaders opening front against Sidhu, Cabinet Minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and former Minister Lal Singh on Tuesday too lashed out at the former cricketer.

 Bajwa, in a strongly worded statement, asked Sidhu as a minister to quit if he cannot work with the Chief Minister as “he has refused to acknowledge the leadership of the Chief Minister”.

“Since he does not know who the captain of the ship is, he should be removed from the Cabinet,” he said.

Only a day before, the state Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot had asked Sidhu to quit the state Cabinet, while the senior-most Minister Brahm Mohindra had already made clear his intentions of writing to the party high command.

Another senior leader, Punjab Congress Election Managing Committee chairman Lal Singh too criticised Sidhu for his “ill-timed and ill-advised” statement, saying that he “should not have aired his views in public on the eve of the elections as these created unnecessarily misunderstandings and may have adversely affected the party’s prospects at a crucial time.

In what is being seen an an apparent attempt to shift blame on Sidhu in case the party performed poorly in the elections, Lal Singh said that Sidhu’s “uncalled for outburst” at a wrong time has the potential of sabotaging the party’s ‘Mission 13’.

“If the party misses the mark, it will be entirely for the statements made by Sidhu. If Sidhu has any issues with Capt Amarinder, he should have raised these with the party high command, instead of going public about these,” he said.

He pointed that Sidhu was in the Congress for just 27 months and he had been accorded all the privileges, honour and respect. “He was instantly offered the party ticket and then made a Minster. Besides, he was assigned the task of campaigning for the party across the country. All these things come with a sense of responsibility which Sidhu should have honoured and acknowledged,” he said.

“Sidhu must realize and acknowledge that he is in the Congress now and must imbibe its culture of discipline”, he observed, adding, if he had any such issues, he could have raised these at different party forums or he could have taken these up with the party high command.

Lal Singh further pointed that Sidhu was wrong in joining his wife in blaming the Chief Minister for denial of party ticket to her from Chandigarh as the Chandigarh Congress has an entirely different party structure independent of Punjab or any other state and “there is no interference from the Punjab Congress”.

Meanwhile, former Union Minister and the party candidate from Sri Anandpur Sahib Manish Tewari also advised Sidhu that it would be better for him “if he first understands the culture of the Congress”.

 RIVALS COME IN SIDHU’S SUPPORT

Backing Sidhu in the ongoing controversy, the Punjab Ekta Party president Sukhpal Singh Khaira declared his party’s open support to the former cricketer.

 “There is no need to bend. The PDA (Punjab Democratic Alliance) will support you,” said Khaira, whose party is a part of the mahagathbandhan — PDA — a conglomeration of six political outfits.

Beside PEP, PDA comprises of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Lok Insaaf Party (LIP), the Nawan Punjab Party led by suspended AAP MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi, the Communist Party of India and the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI).

Khaira said that Sidhu was right in saying about the “friendly match” between the Congress and Akali Dal.

His fellow PDA member and LIP president Simarjit Singh Bains said that Sidhu is an honest leader, and his statements are right. “Sidhu’s statement shows that the Captain government and the Badals are the same, and this would not only harm the Cingress party, but also the entire people of Punjab,” he said.