CHANDIGARH: Navjot Singh Sidhu (57) likes to throw up surprises, resurrecting himself just when he’s written off. His rise as the new Punjab Congress chief from being reduced to one among the crowd of 80 party MLAs in the state, after he quit as minister in protest in 2019, is just another example.
“Master of all trades, jack of none,” says his bio on Twitter, the online platform that remained his only link with supporters during this self-imposed exile of nearly two years.
Sidhu started off as a young cricketer in his hometown Patiala, making a debut in first class cricket in 1981-82. From being labelled a ‘stroke less wonder’ he went on to earn the sobriquet ‘Sixer Sidhu.’ After hanging up his boots, he took up commentary and also appeared as a judge on comedy shows, before he realised that politics was his inner calling.
His father Bhagwant Singh, was the district president of Congress in Patiala and also served as the advocate general. “Sidhu belongs to the second generation of Congress leaders. His father was a popular figure in the party and many leaders would go to him for help in drafting statements due to his command over the English language,” recalls former Congress chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Sidhu’s native village falls in Dhuri in Sangrur district.
It was his father’s wish to see Sidhu play cricket at international level. Punjab’s former deputy speaker Bir Devinder Singh recalls, “When I joined Congress in 1978, his father was the district president. Navjot used to study in Yadavindra Public School, Patiala, and his father would take him to the school ground to practice in the evenings. His father would call us over for company.”
Sidhu’s celebrity status as a firebrand political leader helped when he decided to contest the 2004 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket by shifting base to Amritsar. He defeated Congress heavyweight and sitting Amritsar MP R L Bhatia. “There has never been the need to put up his posters or spend on publicity during elections. He is a household name,” says Shailinder Singh Shelly, a councillor in Amritsar, who switched to Congress in 2017 along with Sidhu.
He had to resign due to a court case against him but managed to reclaim the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat after the ruling was stayed. He won the byelection and went on to clinch the seat in the 2009 general elections. The cricleter-turned-politician had a smooth sailing in BJP but his sour relations with the Badals, of the alliance partner SAD remained an irritant. In 2014, BJP heavyweight Arun Jaitley replaced Sidhu as the party nominee for the general elections and Sidhu was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016. However, he resigned soon after to join Congress before the Punjab assembly elections in 2017.
His wife, Navjot Kaur, a doctor, was the sitting Akali MLA who made way for Sidhu to contest the Amritsar (East) seat on a Congress ticket. Before that, Sidhu tried to experiment by forming a new political front, Aawaaz-e-Punjab, in 2016 but the idea was soon shelved. Sidhu joined chief minister Amarinder Singh’s cabinet as the minister for local bodies. However, his caustic remarks while campaigning for the Congress for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections earned the ire of Amarinder, who changed his portfolio to the low-profile power minister, making Sidhu resign in protest. The Amritsar East MLA, however, remained in touch with the party high command, especially Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. It is believed that he was asked to lie low to avoid further escalation in the state unit.
Before that Sidhu’s courted controversy during his Pakistan visit for the swearing in for his friend and former cricketer Imran Khan by hugging the Pakistan Army chief General Bajwa in 2018. However, the opening of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor soon brought accolades for Sidhu.
