Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) does not want cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu to walk out of the field. Rajnath Singh, who is the national president of the party, has asked Amritsar MP to discuss issues before hanging up his boots.
Miffed with Sidhu’s wife’s outburst on social networking site making party’s internal issue public, Rajnath Singh called up Sidhu in an attempt to pacify him and clarify his position on the issue. He had reportedly urged Sidhu not to make any major political decision without consulting it with the BJP.
Sidhu is likely to meet the national president in New Delhi soon after the ongoing Indian Premier league, where the former cricketer is commentating and hosting a show.
As Sidhu, who has remained silent on the issue so far, is unavailable for his comments owing to his busy schedule and commitments in the ongoing IPl cricket tourney, his wife Navjot Kaur on Friday maintained that Sidhu’s decision “is still of not contesting the lok Sabha elections”.
“Upset” with the party leadership for being “sidelined”, Sidhu was also assured by the national president that no one in the party is against him.
Rajnath Singh recently did not include Sidhu in the BJP National Executive — one of the reason for his "disillusionment" from the party and politics. Sidhu was Secretary in BJP national executive during Nitin Gadkari's tenure as president.
Dr Sidhu, BJP MlA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary in Punjab Government, had been alleging that her husband, despite being “honest” and “upright” person, and after toiling hard for his constituency and its people, had been sidelined by the party, on several occasions.
The allegations came amidst speculations that the party high command may not consider Sidhu’s candidature for Amritsar parliamentary constituency for the ensuing 2014 lok Sabha polls, in view of his absence from the constituency and meager winning margin of 7,000 votes during previous elections in 2009.
Moreover, grapevine is that party’s senior leader, and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who had been the party’s in-charge of Punjab affairs, may try his luck from Amritsar in the upcoming lok Sabha polls. However, denying such reports, State party president Kamal Sharma had, time and again, supported Sidhu’s candidacy from Amritsar.
It has also been learnt that Sidhu had been in conflict with the party for sometime now for being a loose cannon and for his sustained interests in showbiz, and cricket.
A section of BJP is of the view that the three-time MP from Amritsar is neglecting his constituency and is keen on moving out. They believed that the “outburst” is a part of “cover-up” of Sidhu’s “inactions”. “He had remained absent from his constituency since long, had done nothing, and now to cover up his mistakes and inaction, he is blaming everyone,” a senior BJP leader told The Pioneer.
Not long before, Sidhu’s differences with the Punjab Government, led by SAD-BJP alliance, had came to fore in the form of a public interest litigation in the Punjab and Haryana High Court blaming the State Government for cancelling the setting up of garbage disposal plant in Amritsar.
His wife has also maintained that the State Government and also the Centre have not supported him for the development of the constituency.She also stated that Sidhu was not even consulted while making important party appointments in the State district bodies and within party — an allegation plainly refuted by the state party chief.