Amid campaign, Navjot Singh Sidhu leaves for Vaishno Devi shrine again

GS Paul

Amritsar, February 9

With the electoral contest heating up in the most-keenly watched Amritsar East constituency, PCC chief Navjot Sidhu again left for Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Reasi, J&K. It is his second visit to the shrine in a week.

With Sidhu away, his better half Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu is meeting residents of the constituency which she represented between 2012 and 2017. Dr Sidhu had yesterday expressed her discontentment over the criterion followed by the Congress high command to select the CM face. She said since Sidhu was performing party duty across the state, she was holding the fort. She claimed several people had lodged complaint against SAD candidate Bikram Singh Majithia for threatening them.

Nonetheless, it is learnt that Sidhu will stay for the night at the shrine to participate in the morning prayers before returning on Thursday. A week ago, on February 2, prior to the Congress seeking public opinion on the CM candidate, Sidhu had gone to pay obeisance at the shrine.

On the political front, Sidhu is pitted against Majithia in a neck-and-neck fight. “The constituency has a substantial Hindu population. Each and every vote matters. Sidhu’s repeated visits to the Hindu shrine could be an attempt to woo the community,” said Sarbjit Singh Verka, a local.

Meanwhile, the PCC chief on his social media page today posted a video titled ‘Honour lies in honest toil’. In the five-and-a-half-minute video, Sidhu through ‘old clips’ explain that he chose to quit the plum political posts for the sake of Punjab and justice in sacrilege incidents. It also contains shots of his visit to Pakistan during the opening of Kartarpur corridor.

Mentioning about the 1988 fatal road rage case, it was subtitled in the video that the High Court in 2007 had given him relief, followed by his acquittal by the Supreme Court.

The video also has a brief of his political posts, including winning as MP for the BJP thrice, how the Badals conspired to shunt him out to pave way for Arun Jaitley from Amritsar seat in 2014. The video also shows him offering monetary aid ‘out of the way’ from his own pocket.

Posts ‘Honour lies in honest toil’ video

• PCC president Navjot Sidhu has posted a video titled ‘Honour lies in honest toil’
• In the five-and-a-half-minute video, Sidhu explains that he chose to quit political posts for the sake of Punjab and justice in sacrilege incidents
• Sidhu also highlights the acquittal in the 1988 road rage case and how the Badals and the BJP consipred to keep him away from Amritsar