BJP issues first response on Sidhu's appointment as Punjab Cong chief; recalls promises

Amid the rift in Punjab Congress over the choice of former swashbuckling cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu as Congress chief, BJP welcomed his appointment on Monday. Elected to the Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket in 2004 and 2009, his relations with the saffron party soured after he was denied a ticket from Amritsar in the 2014 General Election. While he was nominated to Rajya Sabha in April 2016, he tendered his resignation in less than three months and quit BJP.

Writing on Twitter, BJP national spokesperson RP Singh expressed hope that Sidhu will not forget his promises after taking charge of Congress in Punjab. For instance, he called upon the Punjab Congress chief to ensure that the government acts against the cable, transport and drug mafia. He also reminded the ex-BJP MP about seeking justice in the 2015 sacrilege cases which includes theft of a ‘bir’ of Guru Granth Sahib from a Burj Jawahar Singh Wala village, putting up of hand-written sacrilegious posters in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala and torn pages of ‘bir’ being found at Bargari. 

Sidhu takes on Punjab CM

After winning the Amritsar East seat on a Congress ticket in the 2017 Punjab Assembly polls by a margin of 42,809 votes, Sidhu was inducted into the Cabinet. However, a series of events led to the ex-swashbuckling batsman tendering his resignation from the Cabinet in July 2019. These include Punjab CM Amarinder Singh 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. Though Singh and Sidhu attempted to resolve their differences over tea on March 17, 2021, a positive outcome proved to be elusive. The former BJP repeatedly began to attack the state government and the CM over the purported delayed justice in the incidents of desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and the subsequent police firing incident.

In order to end factionalism in the party's Punjab unit, Congress president Sonia Gandhi formed a committee comprising Rajya Sabha LoP Mallikarjun Kharge, ex-Delhi MP JP Agarwal, and AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Harish Rawat on May 28. Since the last month, the panel has met multiple stakeholders including MLAs, Ministers and the CM to ascertain their views ahead of the 2022 Assembly election. While Amarinder Singh has affirmed on multiple occasions that he will honour any decision taken by Gandhi, he has not publicly reacted to the announcement so far.