Sidhu keeps adversaries guessing on future plans Kejriwal-Sidhu: Made for or made like each other?

Tuesday, 26/07/2016

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CHANDIGARH: A distinct pattern emerges from the haze surrounding the much-awaited next move of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, a week after his dramatic resignation from Rajya Sabha.

By carefully ducking pointed questions during the eight-minute press conference in Delhi on Monday and desisting from making public his next destination, Sidhu has attempted to keep his political adversaries guessing.

Political analysts say Sidhu’s attempt to ‘confound and confuse’ people before making the ambitious gambit public, indicates his ostensible “hard-bargaining” with the AAP despite behind-the-scene deal in the run-up to quitting the Rajya Sabha seat last Monday.

His resignation from Rajya Sabha was billed as having potential to trigger a seismic shift in poll-bound Punjab. But, by delaying to announce the next move, the pro-Sidhu sentiment in Punjab has started ebbing. And his credibility has also begun coming under the cloud.

The former Amritsar MP is yet to clarify whether he is in the BJP or not. He repeatedly said on Monday that he has resigned from Rajya Sabha—triggering speculation about his BJP membership.

His wife, Navjot Kaur — a BJP MLA in Punjab — said the AAP was the only option for her husband. His resignation from Rajya Sabha implied a resignation from the BJP, she said, but her husband kept up the suspense on Monday.

As on now, he continues to be keen on not two boats, but multiple boats. With the AAP having gone overboard in claiming that he was joining the party and the Congress also expressing its willingness to induct him, his options are open and many. “Sidhu has not closed his doors on the BJP. He has belied lots of expectations in his home state,” a political analyst, who didn’t want to be identified, said.

The clouds of suspense got more dense as Sidhu skirted to reveal his next destination in his first media interaction after the big-bang resignation. His detractors argue that perhaps the former India cricket team opener has misread the AAP pitch.

Though in Sidhu the AAP sees a crowd-puling Sikh face which it needs desperately, the signals emanating from the rookie party are confusing. After patting Sidhu for his bold decision to resign from the Upper House and giving ample hints that he was heading AAP wards, Punjab’s AAP leaders have been saying on record that Sidhu will not be projected as the CM face of the party. Such conflicting statements by AAP leaders in Punjab seems to be another reason behind the delay in Sidhu’s formal entry into the party.

The Congress too considers Sidhu a potential threat if joins the AAP. Given his enmity with the ruling Akali Dal leadership (Badals) against whom he lashed out on Monday, the former MP can turn the tide in favour of the outfit he will join. That’s why Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh was quick to invite Sidhu to join the party in an apparent bid to outsmart the AAP in its race for power in Punjab.

But in Congress Sidhu will be one of the frontline leaders, while in AAP he will be a key player.

Unlike in cricket, where Sidhu was an aggressive front-foot player hitting the ball hard, he is playing it very safe and defensive in politics. Sidhu also sounded diplomatic by saying that he resigned from Rajya Sabha as he was asked to “keep away” from Punjab.

Capt Amarinder Singh was quick to respond to this. “Sidhu’s revelations have vindicated our stand that Akalis and BJP were partners in sins of omission and commission and may be they were apprehensive that he (Sidhu) might expose them. Thus, they gagged him,” he said.

Now, the Akali Dal, Congress and the BJP also are watching closely at Sidhu’s next move—the key to the emerging dynamics of Punjab politics. NEW DELHI: Navjot Sidhu and Arvind Kejriwal aren’t exactly made for each other, primarily because they are made like each other! They’re celebrities. Are strongheaded, love being in the limelight they’d not share. Or do so grudgingly.

If they decide to work together, they’d need to have their birth-charts matched.

But it takes no punditry to know there aren’t, in the game of power, any permanent enemies or friends.

Poll results in the event of Arvind having Sidhu by his side in Punjab could be a no-brainer. Together, they’d be formidable, almost invincible — subject, of course, to clause force majeure.

The Latin word for “superior force” fits so well in their case. For they’ll have to guard against the force of their own personae: strong, self-righteous, adapt at playing first violinists, never the second fiddle.

The ‘will they, won’t they’ quandary remains because Sidhu, in his first media interaction after quitting the Rajya Sabha, slammed the Akalis and lashed out against his erstwhile party. But gave no whiff of his future plans.

So, there’s no finality yet about the former cricketer joining the AAP; the terms of engagement he’s seeking or has on offer from the party where there’s resistance within to his projection as CM. AAP’s Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chhotepur is on record saying if Sidhu joins, he’ll only campaign and not contest. NOW WHAT DOES ONE MAKE OF THAT?

Is he going to be for the AAP what Priyanka Gandhi could be for the Congress in UP? A force-multiplier! Or will he go around endorsing the party as Punjab’s best bet amid all-round despondence? The way Anna Hazare certified Kejriwal after he swept Delhi: “Arvind will make a good CM who’d work for the poor.”

Let’s study the scenario from Kejriwal’s standpoint. He’s his party’s maker, promoter and navigator. Sidhu was busy doing TV shows — deciding not to show up in the 2014 polls on being denied a BJP ticket from Amritsar — when the AAP struck roots in Punjab. For him it’s one thing to have Sidhu by his side, and another to have him in his place.

If at all, Punjab, as a fullfledged state, will afford the AAP what’s denied to it in Delhi — a level turf to govern.

The win in the sensitive border state has to be flaunted elsewhere to drive home Kejriwal’s national appeal. There’s no equity on offer in the credit for a victory there.

In contrast, Sidhu is propelled by his distaste for the Akalis who did him in so often in cahoots with the BJP. He isn’t as much driven by ambition as by democratic revenge. An opening lies there perhaps for him and any future ally.

“I resigned because I was being told (by BJP) to stay away from Punjab,” he said, declaring: “I can’t be a bystander in a holy war…” But he let the mystery be, not saying on which side should he be counted —now that he has stood up to be counted against the coalition in power.