Sidhu fears the Badals will spoil his party

Former cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP MP from Amritsar, fears that alliance partner Akali Dal will spoil his chances during the Lok Sabha polls.

The day before Sukhbir Singh Badal took oath as deputy chief minister in Amritsar, Akali Dal workers pulled down Sidhu’s posters. Overnight, Sukhbir’s posters dotted the city. A day before, BJP chief Rajnath Singh had called Sidhu to Delhi to assure him that the Akalis would not spoil his electoral chances. Sidhu even travelled with Rajnath to Sukhbir’s function.

But there is speculation Sukhbir might contest from the assembly seat of Majitha, which falls in Amritsar.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and senior BJP leaders like Balbir Punj, in charge of the party’s Punjab unit, held a closed-door meeting in Amritsar on Thursday to resolve the crisis. Badal reportedly assured the BJP leadership they would campaign for Sidhu, whose candidature the BJP announced two months ago.

Recently there was speculation that Sidhu might not contest and instead campaign for the party nation-wide. His supporters, however, said Sidhu was reluctant to contest because of the behaviour of Akali Dal leaders.

Akali Dal supporters and the Sidhu camp had a long drawn out battle during the Amritsar municipal polls in which the Akali Dal wanted to snatch the mayor’s seat from the BJP. Ever since, the Akalis have left Sidhu out of every state-level function in Amritsar. Sidhu objected to this violation of protocol. He even took exception to a recent report which rated as ‘poor’ his spending of MPLAD funds. Sidhu called the reports misleading and “planted by his Akali rivals”.