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Cricket commentator, laughter show judge and MP Navjot Singh Sidhu is once again in the news. He is already seen in the new season of Kapil Sharma’s show, his desire is to be seen as the candidate for the post of Chief Minister of Punjab. This time, not any other supporter of his, his wife and former minister Navjot Kaur has expressed this wish. The words used by Navjot Kaur to express her wish had some hidden meanings which meant that she did not have Rs 500 crore to declare Sidhu as the CM candidate. The result of such statements was that Navjot Kaur was suspended from Congress and now Navjot Singh Sidhu has asked for an appointment with Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi.

It is being said that Navjot Singh Sidhu wants to meet Priyanka Gandhi and present his views. The target of Sidhu and his wife is Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh Raja Wadig and senior Congress leader Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. ‘Double Navjot’ wishes that the state president should be of his choice and Sidhu should be made the CM candidate. Let us remind you that even in 2022, Sidhu was the person whose uprooting resulted in Congress being uprooted from Punjab and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed the government. It is feared that if Congress does not support Sidhu, he may once again turn to his old party i.e. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Even if he does this, it will not be considered very unexpected. The main reason for this is that Sidhu once called BJP his mother. The same Sidhu used to make fun of Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi and was once seen touching Sonia Gandhi’s feet in public. Let us know about such activities of Sidhu which indicate that Sidhu can get uprooted again any time.

Sidhu’s journey in BJP

Famous cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu had joined BJP before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. In 2004, he contested elections from Amritsar Lok Sabha seat and became MP. However, Sidhu resigned after being found guilty in a road rage case in 2007. When by-elections were held, Sidhu again contested and won. Sidhu became MP in 2009 also. However, things turned sour in 2014. BJP gave ticket to Arun Jaitley in place of Sidhu. Sidhu got angry with this and did not even go to campaign for Arun Jaitley.

Congress had given ticket to Captain Amarinder Singh against its rival Arun Jaitley. In this heavyweight contest, Arun Jaitley lost the election by a margin of more than one lakh votes. Despite this, BJP tried to convince Sidhu. To convince Sidhu, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha in 2016. However, Sidhu did not agree here either and resigned from Rajya Sabha in July 2016. After this there was talk that he could join AAP or Congress.

Before leaving BJP and joining Congress, Sidhu and Pargat Singh had jointly founded Awaaz-e-Punjab. At that time there was discussion that Sidhu could join Aam Aadmi Party. However, Sidhu’s condition there too was that he should be declared the CM candidate. It is said that AAP did not agree to this.

Sidhu’s journey in Congress

Entry in Congress and ministerial post

Navjot Singh Sidhu joined Congress in the month of January, just before the 2017 assembly elections, after taking time to explore all options after being unhappy with BJP. Congress gave ticket to Navjot Singh Sidhu from the same Amritsar East seat from where his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu had been winning the elections on BJP ticket. Sidhu won by a margin of more than 40 thousand votes. The government was formed and Captain Amarinder Singh once again became the Chief Minister of Punjab.

When the government was formed in Punjab, Sidhu was made a minister. Now Sidhu remains Sidhu. Within 2 years, he started ‘stirring’ work in the Punjab government itself. Sidhu, who went to campaign in Bathinda during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, accused his own party’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh that he has closeness to the Badal family and keeps protecting the Badal family.

Enmity with Captain and resignation from cabinet

Tension started from here between Captain Amarinder and Sidhu. Captain changed Sidhu’s ministry. Sidhu was earlier the local bodies minister but the Captain gave him the energy department. Sidhu also got angry and resigned from the post of minister. Sidhu, who became a minister in 2017, left the ministerial post in 2019 and wrote a letter to Rahul Gandhi. Interestingly, the letter written by Sidhu to resign from the post of minister was written to the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi instead of the Chief Minister. However, after the Lok Sabha elections, Rahul Gandhi had also offered to resign from the post of Congress President.

It is said that after this incident, Sidhu went to Delhi several times and besides Rahul Gandhi, he also became close to Priyanka Gandhi. Sidhu posted a picture after one such meeting. In this picture, apart from Rahul and Priyanka, there was also Ahmed Patel with Sidhu, who was the biggest crisis manager of Congress at that time. Ahmed Patel is no more in this world and perhaps Sidhu is also feeling this loss.

Sidhu’s coronation and change of CM

Well, the Congress government continued to function and Sidhu continued to set his sights. On the basis of assurance received from the high command, Sidhu started strengthening himself. Sidhu left the ministry and joined the organization. The stakes were set on July 8, 2021 and Sunil Jakhar, who was the president of Punjab Congress at that time, was removed and Navjot Sidhu was made the president of Bihar Congress. Obviously this was not acceptable to Captain Amarinder Singh.

Political activities were intense in Punjab and factionalism was at its peak. Captain Amarinder had expressed his displeasure both directly and indirectly. Meanwhile, Congress in-charge of Punjab Harish Rawat tweeted on 18 September 2021 that a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party has been called on 19 September 2021. For Captain Amarinder Singh, the water was now above his head. He immediately resigned from the post of Chief Minister. Sidhu felt that now he had laddus in both his hands. Congress made Charanjit Singh Channi the Chief Minister instead of Captain Sidhu.

Sidhu felt that Channi would remain just a dummy CM and now ‘Guru’s government’ would run. However, this did not happen. On September 20, Charanjit Singh Channi took oath as CM. Sidhu was once again upset and resigned from the post of Punjab Congress President on 28 September. However, after the intervention of the high command, he withdrew his resignation. The 2022 elections were fought under the leadership of Sidhu and Charanjit Singh Channi. Congress, which is ruling Punjab, could win only 18 out of 117 seats. CM Charanjit Singh Channi and Sidhu lost the elections from their seats also and Aam Aadmi Party came to power.

Sidhu’s resignation and beginning of cold period

Due to defeat in the elections, resignation was taken from Navjot Singh Sidhu. Youth leader leader Amarinder Singh Raja Vadig got his place. Raja Vading took over the task and within a few months Sidhu was sentenced to 1 year in prison in a 34-year-old road rage case. Due to this decision of the Supreme Court, Sidhu went to jail and he distanced himself from politics. By the time Sidhu came out of jail on April 1, 2023, a lot of water had flowed in the rivers of Punjab. Captain Amarinder Singh, who left Congress and formed a new party, merged his party with BJP in September 2022 and himself joined BJP. Charanjit Singh Channi was also very less active.

Before Sidhu could become active in politics after coming out of jail, he came to know that his wife Navjot Kaur was suffering from cancer. After coming out of jail, Sidhu devoted all his time to taking care of his wife and stayed away from politics. When the 2024 Lok Sabha elections came, Congress wanted Sidhu to contest against Captain Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur from Patiala Lok Sabha seat. However, Sidhu bluntly said that he will not contest the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress benefited from Sidhu’s absence in the Lok Sabha elections. Congress won 7 out of 13 seats in Punjab. Leaders like Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Amarinder Singh Raja Vading and Charanjit Singh Channi contested the Lok Sabha elections and became MPs after winning. The state space became vacant again but Sidhu still did not become active. Now when there is only more than a year left for the Punjab elections, Sidhu’s wife has started batting.

Exactly similar incidents are happening as happened in 2017 but this time instead of Captain Amarinder, the target is Amarinder Singh Raja Wading and Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa. The reason for targeting both of them is that both are counted among big leaders. Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has a hold on the organization while Raja Vading is among those leaders in whom Punjab Congress sees its future. In such a situation, it is obvious that he is the target for Navjot Singh Sidhu who is roaming around with the desire for the post of CM.