AMRITSAR: Congressmen in Amritsar have made big preparations to visit Patiala to receive Navjot Singh Sidhu who is likely to be released from jail on April 1.
Former Congress MLA Sunil Dutti said that a large number of Congress leaders from the Majha region of Punjab were going to Patiala on Saturday.
“We are taking a cavalcade of hundreds of vehicles to receive our leader from whom not only every Congressmen but every Indian have high hopes for the well-being of the nation,” Dutti said.
Stating that many senior Congress leaders from Punjab met Sidhu in the jail on Friday, Dutti said Sidhu was a game changer and being a committed player his release from jail would infuse a fresh spirit among Congress leaders ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The cricketer-turned-politician — who used to call himself ‘Vajpayee Sahib Da Siphai’ (foot soldier of Vajpayee) in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but later joined the Congress — has been a Lok Sabha member, MLA, cabinet minister, president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) and has held other posts.
In May 2022, the Supreme Court sentenced Sidhu to one year of rigorous imprisonment in a 1988 road-rage case.
Earlier, there were reports that Sidhu could be released from jail on January 26.
An eloquent speaker, Sidhu is a crowd puller and had earned the sobriquet of ‘Sixer Sidhu’ for hitting sixes in cricket matches.
Sidhu had been instrumental in the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor which fulfilled the religious aspirations of Sikhs to travel up to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur in Narowal district of Pakistan, and return the same day without a visa.
Pakistan’s former army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had told Sidhu about Pakistan’s intentions of the opening of the corridor during the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.
Sidhu went to Pakistan to attend the oath-taking ceremony of his cricketing days friend turned prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan on August 18, 2018.
His visit bore fruits when Kartarpur Corridor was inaugurated on November 9, 2019.
Dutti further said that Sidhu would first go to his home in Patiala and would make his programme to visit Amritsar in a day or two.
Another Congress leader, who didn’t wish to give his name, said a roadmap has already been prepared for Sidhu in the Congress party and there was a likelihood of giving him a major responsibility.
