Sidhu quits BJP, wife yet to take call
Thursday, 15/09/2016
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/sidhu-quits-bjp-wife-yet-to-take-call/295503.html
BJP MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu shows newspaper reports on Akali halqa chiefs after the Vidhan Sabha session in Chandigarh on Wednesday. Tribune photo: Manoj Mahajan
New delhi/Chandigarh : Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu today formally resigned from the party, while his wife, a BJP MLA, said she would join him once he floated a political outfit in the poll-bound state.
Sidhu, who quit his Rajya Sabha membership on July 18, sent his resignation to BJP chief Amit Shah, making clear his intention to fight the Punjab Assembly elections under the banner of a new political entity, Awaaz-e-Punjab.
"I hereby resign from the primary membership of BJP. Long association (with BJP), painful decision...not my wife, children and party, but Punjab alone comes first. Punjab, Punjabiat and every Punjabi must win (sic)," Sidhu said in his letter.
"Sidhu has sent his resignation from the primary membership of the party to Amit Shah. The party has accepted it," Prabhat Jha, party in-charge of Punjab Affairs, said in New Delhi.
The 52-year-old former BJP leader, who had represented Amritsar in the Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014, had accused BJP of using him as a "decorative piece" and trying to keep him out of Punjab.
The couple's political future has been a subject of much speculation. Initially, there was a talk of their joining AAP and Navjot Singh becoming its face in the Assembly elections next year, but his bitter attack against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ruled it out.
Meanwhile, BJP MLA from Amritsar Navjot Kaur Sidhu said here today that she was yet to make up her mind to join Awaaz-e-Punjab, a political front floated by her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu along with Independent MLAs Balwinder Bains and Simarjit Bains, besides former Akali MLA Pargat Singh.
Talking to mediapersons after the end of the session, she said her husband had gone to Delhi to put in his papers. She said she had promised her supporters that she would complete this term as MLA. However, she said she would join Awaaz-e-Punjab only if she was convinced that it would stand by democratic principles. She said the front was yet to take the desired shape.
Known for straight talk, Navjot Kaur criticised her own government (treasury benches) for not allowing the opposition MLAs to raise relevant issues or to have a debate in the House. She was talking in context of the protest by the Bains brothers who today sat on the floor to protest against the Speaker for not allowing a discussion on river waters.
On her husband's resignation, she said, "Navjot Sidhu had resigned the day he had said he was being kept away from Punjab. The state is his first concern...He campaigned across the country for a party and he could not do anything for Punjab.
"In the last few days, a propaganda had started describing him as an agent to bring back the Badal government. Hence, it was essential to clear that he was not an agent and he has come only for Punjab's interests and to give an alternative to people of the state."
"I am only the MLA of my area. I am waiting for the BJP to throw me out...they are misbehaving with me," she alleged.
Sidhu had not resigned from the BJP despite floating Awaaz-e-Punjab forum earlier this month.
The BJP decided not to field him from Amritsar in the 2014 parliamentary elections. The party fielded now Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who lost to Capt Amarinder Singh.
