Capt vs Badal, Bittu to take on Sukhbir, Sidhu pads up

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 15

With former cricketer and BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu coming on board and the party approving the candidature of Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh from Lambi where he takes on the Punjab Chief Minister, the Congress is finally in battle gear. 

Sidhu met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at the latter’s residence this morning. The Congress is learnt to have decided to field Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu against Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Jalalabad; Navjot Singh Sidhu from Amritsar East and former Olympian Pargat Singh from Jalandhar Cantt.

Top Congress sources said an announcement in this regard was expected soon.

The Congress, welcoming Sidhu into its ranks, described him as an asset to the party and thanked Rahul for bringing “like-minded persons on board to achieve the objective of good governance in Punjab”.

Sidhu’s entry into the Congress had been anticipated for months after his wife and sitting Amritsar East MLA Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu joined the Congress along with Pargat Singh on November 28. Sources said Sidhu wanted to join only at the end of the “inauspicious” pre-Lohri period and after Makar Sankranti.

He will announce his arrival in the Congress at the party headquarters in Delhi tomorrow in the presence of Punjab affairs in-charge Asha Kumari. However, Rahul and Capt Amarinder will not be present on the occasion. Rahul will be leaving for Uttarakhand for an election tour and Capt Amarinder is busy campaigning in Punjab. The PPCC chief said he would file his nomination from Lambi on January 18. 

After the Congress declares the four seats it is learnt to have cleared today, it would have declared 112 candidates for the 117-member Punjab Assembly.

Sources said Capt Amarinder would contest from both Patiala-Urban and Lambi. They said it was too late to look for a “winning” candidate from the seat earlier held by Capt Amarinder’s wife Preneet Kaur.