The ambitious of Former BJP MP of Rajya Sabha and Former Indian cricket opener Navjot Singh Sidhu move to start a second political innings with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has hit a roadblock.
It was simply clear from the rapid fire tweets of AAP supremo and Delhi CM Arvind Kerjiwal on Friday that former MP of Rajya Sabha Navjot Sidhu “needs time to think” on joining the AAP party. But in his last three tweets that the AAP Supremo and Delhi chief minister delivered a loaded message. By saying that his respect for Sidhu “will continue whether he joins the AAP party or not”, for the first time, Kejriwal admitted, that negotiations on the terms for Sidhu joining to AAP had reached nowhere.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) quickly interpreted the tweets of Kejriwal as a “goodbye” signal to Sidhu. Navjot Singh Sidhu has been mixing with the AAP ever since his resignation as MP of Rajya Sabha on 18th July 2016. The opposition Congress party lost no time in making a flurry of fresh overtures to woo Sidhu. The father of Navjot Singh Sidhu was a Congress leader from Patiala.
According to the sources that Navjot Singh Sidhu wants to be the face of AAP in Punjab Assembly Election as a chief ministerial candidate. Sidhu is also rooting for a poll ticket for his wife and a dozen other candidates of his choice.
Declaring Sidhu as the CM candidate in Punjab Assembly election has potential to trigger a volcanic eruption in AAP because the senior leaders of AAP in Punjab differ strongly on whether the party should declare a CM candidate, or not. Sucha Singh Chhotepur who is the State unit convener of AAP nurses himself as a chief ministerial candidate and wants the party to follow its principle of elected MLAs choosing their leader after the polls.
According to the sources said that as for a ticket to fight the election, Navjot Singh Sidhu has been asked to choose between himself and his wife, because the norms of the AAP party say that 2 persons from a family cannot be given the ticket.
And the latest move of CM Kejriwal has dashed the hope of Navjot Sidhu of AAP pitching him as its trump card in Punjab assembly election.
Having broken his relation with the BJP, Sidhu is fast running out of options. The Congress has warmed up to him. The congress leader Manpreet Badal even saying that he will walk barefoo to welcome Navjot Singh Sidhu into the Congress, but it is not an easy choice for the former Amritsar MP.
Sidhu has burned his boats with the BJP. He assumed that the Punjab CM’s post is his for the asking if he joined AAP, without realising that Kejri desperately wants to rule a ‘state’, not the UT of Delhi, to prove that he is a great politician and administrator, having failed miserably in both qualities in Delhi. Now that too is gone. Congress will welcome him and use him, but he will remain only a small fish in a big pond and will never be allowed to outshine Amarender Singh etc. So, effectively, he has played every card dealt to him badly. Which is NOT a surprise really because he was never a real politician.