Sidhu needs time and we respect that, says Kejriwal
Saturday, 20/08/2016
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NEW DELHI: With speculation over whether cricketer-turnedpolitician Navjot Singh Sidhu will join the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) causing unease in Punjab and the Congress wooing Sidhu, Delhi chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday the cricketer needs time to think and his party respects that.
In a string of tweets, Kejriwal said there are rumours over the delay in Sidhu’s joining. “He met me last week. Didn’t put any pre-condition. He needs time to think. Let’s respect that (sic),” Kejriwal tweeted. In another tweet, he left the question whether Sidhu would join or not, unanswered: “He is a v gud human being n a ckt legend. My respect for him wud continue whether he joins or not (sic).”
Kejriwal’s tweets created a political flutter and are being seen as confirmation of a deadlock between him and Sidhu, who resigned as BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP last month and showed inclination to join AAP.
Sensing an opportunity, the Congress lost no time in renewing its efforts to woo Sidhu into the party fold ahead of the highstake Punjab assembly elections barely five months away.
A senior Congress leader privy to the developments confirmed to HT that his party had opened a channel with Sidhu and his legislator wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu. The couple chose not to respond to phone calls, text messages and attempts to contact them through their aides.
“The party is willing to offer the Lok Sabha ticket from Amritsar to Sidhu and a minister’s job in the state government to his wife,” the Punjab Congress leader said.
The offer of course, is contingent on the party winning the 2017 assembly elections and Capt Amarinder Singh – who is the party’s chief ministerial candidate – vacating the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat. Sidhu was elected thrice to the Lok Sabha from Amritsar and his wife is the sitting MLA from there. “Sidhu has the Congress DNA in him and he will always be better off in the Congress,” Amarinder told reporters in Phagwara.
In a string of tweets on Friday morning, Kejriwal said there are rumours over the delay in Sidhu’s joining. “He met me last week. Didn’t put any pre-condition. He needs time to think. Let’s respect that (sic),” Kejriwal tweeted. In another tweet, he left the question whether Sidhu would join or not, unanswered: “He is a v gud human being n a ckt legend. My respect for him wud continue whether he joins or not (sic).”
Since last week, from the time Sidhu went back on the joining date of August 14, different sources in the AAP said the couple was negotiating hard and seeking tickets for both while the party’s constitution lays down the norm of ‘one ticket per family.’ A senior leader claimed Sidhu wanted an assurance that his wife would be given a cabinet berth in Punjab and he would be the AAP’s face or get a Rajya Sabha nomination. Another leader said Sidhu wanted to be projected as the party’s CM face. “We told him, we cannot forego our processes or change the party constitution for him. He doesn’t need any declarations from AAP, he is already a tall leader,” a source in the AAP said.
“It will be entirely his decision to join the party. The people of Punjab will decide who their MLA and the chief minister will be,” AAP’s national spokesperson Dilip Pandey had said on Thursday giving credence to reports that the Sidhu’s were playing hard.
But with reports from Punjab suggesting that the delay in inducting Sidhu into the party will affect AAP’s popularity, the party brass began course correction. It appointed Delhi MLA Jarnail Singh, who is a survivor of the anti-sikh violence of 1984, as joint in-charge and spokesperson for Punjab. Hours later, Kejriwal tweeted saying he would always respect Sidhu whatever his decision.
