Punjab CM’s post costs Rs 500 cr, Sidhu can’t pay: Navjot Kaur sparks row

Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu, has kicked up a political storm in Punjab by alleging that “a briefcase full of Rs 500 crore” is required to become Chief Minister in the state, something she said her husband could not pay.

The former MLA was speaking to mediapersons on Saturday evening after meeting Punjab Governor Gulab Chand Kataria here on several issues, including the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state.

While she did not name any party while making the Rs 500-crore remark, she said Sidhu would return to active politics in the Congress only if he was made the party’s chief ministerial face in Punjab. Pointing to infighting within the party, she said there were “already five chief ministerial faces” in the Congress who, she claimed, were “busy causing harm to the party”. “If they (the high command) understand this, it is a different matter,” she said.

She said they did not have money to give to any party, but could transform Punjab into a “golden state”. Replying to a query, she said her husband was “strongly attached” to the Congress and to its leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

State Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring declined to be drawn into the controversy, saying it was for the party high command to comment. However, former Deputy CM and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the Sidhu family should be shown the door. “It seems the mission for which the Sidhu family came to the Congress has been completed. Will he tell us how much he gave when he became the Punjab Congress president, a post equivalent to the CM at that time, and to whom? Looking at his past conduct, it is clear he spoke only as per a script prepared by the opposition and caused huge losses to the Congress. Now he is stabbing the party in the back,” Randhawa said.

Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar claimed that he had faced a similar situation when he was in the Congress. “I was told straight from the horse’s mouth that you get the chief ministership not because of good deeds but because of Rs 350 crore. I do not have an audio recording of that conversation, but maybe Mrs Sidhu has one,” he said.

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh said Navjot Kaur had exposed the Congress’s “money-bag politics”. He said when the wife of a senior Congress leader admitted that the CM’s position could be purchased through financial deals, it reflected a complete moral collapse in the Congress under Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. He added that this showed the party’s internal functioning had reduced Punjab’s politics to a money-driven auction rather than a democratic leadership process.

AAP chief spokesperson and Ajnala MLA Kuldeep Dhaliwal blamed Congress’ internal conflict and arrogance for its present condition. On Navjot Kaur’s comment, he said this exposed the internal reality of the party. On the recent Tarn Taran bypolls, Dhaliwal alleged factionalism, arrogance and the buying and selling of tickets ruined the party.