Punjab: Has Sidhu run himself out?

If he continues down the path he has been on, Navjot Singh Sidhu could soon be on the lookout for a new political home outside the Congress in Punjab.

At loggerheads with Captain Amarinder Singh since the party’s 77 out of 117 seats victory in the February 2017 assembly election, the ex-cricketer has finally managed to push the usually unflappable chief minister too far.

Word is that Sidhu, known to bypass the chain of command’ and reach out directly to Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka, could soon be stripped of the coveted local government portfolio. His responsibilities have to be redesignated. We lost Bathinda and Gurdaspur because of the poor performance in urban [assembly] segments, Amarinder told INDIA TODAY in Chandigarh.

In Gurdaspur, for instance, Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar trailed in most urban segments while he was ahead of actor Sunny Deol in rural areas like Dera Baba Nanak, Fatehgarh Churian, Batala and Qadian. Party insiders say many Congress legislators have been warning of voter disillusionment with Sidhu.

But the problem is not just his alleged failures’. Sidhu is simply not cut out to be a Congressman, says a senior state Congress leader, pointing to Sidhu’s tendency to go into a sulk, followed by embarrassing public outbursts.

Early on in the tenure of the Amarinder government, Sidhu got into skirmishes over wanting to impose taxes on cable TV (ostensibly to hurt a network associated with the Badal family); insisting on an unviable sand-mining policy; and allegedly wanting his way in the state liquor (excise) policy.

Later, Sidhu opened a whole new front by engaging in a very public hug with Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa at Imran Khan’s swearing-in as prime minister in August 2018.

Amarinder, an army soldier who saw action in the 1965 Monsoon War’, was not amused. Months later, Sidhu cro­ssed the border again for the contentious Kartarpur Corridor cere­mony, this time rubbing shoulders with self-professed Khalis­tanis like Gopal Singh Chawla in Lahore! Congress insiders are convinced his actions hurt the party’s prospects. After the Pulwama attack, his jhappi with Gen. Bajwa stuck out like a sore thumb, says a party leader.

The last straw was Sidhu’s sojourn in his home state Punjab. Despite a number of requests from contesting Congress nominees, Sidhu made a late appearance on the final day of campaigning on May 17.

In a series of poll meetings that day in Bathinda, he took some really adventurous potshots that possibly contributed to the Congress’s five hit wickets. In Bathinda, a seat coveted by Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Sidhu accused Amarinder of coll­uding with the Badals! And that, in the Captain’s book, is unpardonable.