Randhawa slams Navjot Kaur’s Rs 500 crore CM chair claim

After her “Rs 500 crore for CMs chair” claim, Congress general secretary Sukhjinder Randhawa on Monday said it was “unfortunate” that Navjot Kaur Sidhu made such a remark and asked how much was paid when her husband Navjot Sidhu was made a minister and then the Punjab Congress president.

Randhawa, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab, also said the Congress faces a threat from no one in the state but from such people within.

“It is unfortunate that Navjot Kaur Sidhu has made such a statement. Navjot Sidhu joined the Congress from the BJP, and he was made a minister. They should tell how much was paid for Sidhu to become a minister. He was made the number 2 minister. How much was paid?

“Then he was made the Punjab Congress Committee (PCC) president. They should reveal how much was paid then,” Randhawa told reporters outside Parliament. He also said they all worked with Sidhu and stayed with him when he was made the minister and then the PCC president.

“The party is supreme, the party president is supreme. The chief minister remains under him and comes later,” the Congress leader claimed.

“My sister Navjot Kaur should tell how much money was paid for Sidhu to become the PCC president. For three-and-a-half years, Congress workers in Punjab have been beaten up and facing action from the ruling dispensation in Punjab. Why were they (Sidhus) silent for all this time?

“Now, when the election year is nearing, you suddenly start making such statements. Navjot Kaur also claimed proximity to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and when Priyanka went to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s constituency in Dhuri, Navjot Sidhu indulged in indiscipline,” Randhawa, the Lok Sabha MP from Gurdaspur, said.

“The Congress faces no threat from anyone in Punjab. It faces a threat only from such kind of people sitting within the party,” the Congress leader said.

Former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur triggered a row on Saturday by claiming that “one who gives a suitcase of Rs 500 crore becomes the CM”.

Speaking to reporters after meeting Governor Gulab Chand Kataria, Navjot Kaur said her husband will return to active politics if the Congress declares him as the party’s chief ministerial face in Punjab. She also said they do not have money to give to any party but can transform Punjab into a “golden state”.

“We always speak for Punjab and Punjabiyat. But we do not have Rs 500 crore to give to sit in the chief minister’s chair,” she said.

However, after a political row erupted over her remarks, Navjot Kaur claimed her “straight comment” was given a “twist”.

“I am shocked to see the twist given to a straight comment saying that the Congress never demanded anything from us. On being asked about Navjot becoming a CM face from any other party, I said we have no money to offer for a CM’s post,” Kaur said in a post on X on Sunday evening.

She added that when asked if anybody demanded money from them, she said nobody demanded money, but the “one who gives a suitcase of Rs 500 crore becomes the CM”.

Following her remarks, the BJP and the AAP claimed that her comments exposed the “ugly truth” of how the grand old party functions, and the “money bag politics” it indulges in.