Navjot Sidhu fires fresh salvo at Amarinder: 'Stop firing from party colleagues' shoulder'

On Thursday, disgruntled Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu asked Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh to stop attacking him by proxy through his Cabinet colleagues. The woes in the Congress camp escalated after 7 Punjab Ministers- Gurpreet Kangar, Balbir Singh Sidhu, Bharat Bhushan Ashu, Vijay Inder Singla, Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora and Sadhu Singh Dharamsot demanded strict disciplinary action against Sidhu for his "anti-party activities". The cricketer-turned-politician has been repeatedly attacking the state government and Singh over the purported delay in justice in the incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent police firing incident.

Writing on Twitter a day earlier, Navjot Sidhu remarked, "Punjab’s conscience is above party lines, Stop firing from party colleagues shoulders. You are directly responsible & answerable - who will protect you in the court of the Great Guru?"

A few days earlier, Sidhu had claimed that there is a consensus among Congress MLAs that the SAD leadership is ruling in lieu of the Congress government. According to him, the bureaucracy and police are acting as per wishes of the Badal family instead of listening to Congress MLAs and party workers. In another dig at the Punjab CM, the former Minister alleged that the state government is functioning for continuing the control of the 'Mafia Raj' instead of ensuring the welfare of people. 

Sidhu-Captain faceoff

A two-term BJP MP from Amritsar, Navjot Sidhu grew distant from the saffron party after he was denied a ticket to contest from this seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. While he was nominated as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2016, he resigned from the party and joined Congress a year later. After winning the Amritsar East seat in the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls by a margin of 42,809 votes, the ex-swashbuckling batsman was inducted into the Cabinet. However, the ties gradually went worsened leading to Sidhu tendering his resignation from the Cabinet in July 2019.

Some of the events that triggered this move include the Punjab CM openly slamming Sidhu for his 2018 visit to Pakistan where he hugged Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa, losing key portfolios and denial of ticket to Navjot Kaur Sidhu in the 2019 General Election. While the former cricketer continues to be an MLA, he has maintained a distance from party activities. While Singh and Sidhu attempted to resolve their differences over tea on March 17, 2021, a positive outcome proved to be elusive. The relationship took a turn for the worse after the Punjab & Haryana HC quashed the SIT probe into the firing cases on April 9. 

Breaking his silence on Sidhu's attacks, Singh on April 27 dared him to contest from Patiala in the 2022 polls and predicted that he will lose his deposit. Moreover, he contended that the cricketer-turned-politician wanted to join some other party. Ruling out the possibility of replacing Sunil Jakhar as the Punjab Congress president, the CM asserted that he would oppose the suggestion of giving the top post to Sidhu. Additionally, he also dismissed the claim of the ex-BJP MP on the Deputy CM's position.