Sidhu also accuses few BJP leaders of restraining him to campaign for Jaitley
Hitting back at Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for “shedding crocodile tears” after playing “worst negative role” in denying him party ticket from his bastion, the outgoing BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu on Wednesday put across “seven questions” to the Akali veteran.
The cricketer-turned-politician, who is currently in Bangladesh for T20 Cricket World Cup, blamed it on the “SAD and a handful of Punjab BJP leaders with vested interests” for putting stumbling blocks in his way to campaign for his “political mentor” Arun Jaitley, who is contesting as SAD-BJP candidate, replacing him, from Amritsar.
“I earnestly wanted to campaign for my mentor Jaitley, but the circumstances created by SAD and a handful of Punjab BJP leaders with vested interests, has put stumbling blocks on my way….Nevertheless, my wife Dr Navjot Kaur, who is MlA from Amritsar (East) under Amritsar lok Sabha seat, is putting in her best efforts to enable Jaitley sahib win. Moreover, I have also urged all my supporters to wholeheartedly work for Jaitley Sir,” he said in a statement.
lashing at the five-time Chief Minister Badal, Sidhu said: “Having played worst negative role in getting me denied the ticket from my bastion, Amritsar, Badal is now shedding crocodile’s tears.”
The three-time Amritsar MP was responding to the Chief Minister’s appeal to Sidhu asking him not to show his back, but campaign for his political guru Arun Jaitley. “Dear Badal Sahib, I have braved all your Machiavellian bows on the chest and having no habit of ever showing my back,” he asserted in a strongly worded reply.
He asked Badal why his was not invited for the inauguration ceremonies of several Amritsar development projects, while at the same time questioning if even a single development project had been inaugurated in Bathinda without the involvement of MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
He also questioned on who ordered his “exclusion” from his “pet project of Amritsar Development Authority”, all meetings held for Amritsar development projects, besides on “whose instances I was humiliated during the visits of several foreign dignitaries to Amritsar”.
Without softening his stance, Sidhu asked Badal why and who scuttled his pet projects for Amritsar including, Solid Waste Management, Multi-specialty Sports Complex, CCTV cameras for city sensitive areas, expansion of Bhandari bridge, flyovers at 4S crossing and Verka railway track.
“What stopped you to execute the aforesaid development works when sufficient money was available with the Amritsar Improvement Trust and you had given me a written assurance to dissuade me against going on hunger strike over all these development works for the holy city of Amritsar,” Sidhu asked Badal.
It is apparently the first time that Sidhu had assailed Badal openly after he was not re-nominated from Amritsar seat. His differences with the Akalis, and several BJP leaders too, coupled with going public against the ruling coalition has gone against the sitting MP.