The simmering tension between Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and minister Navjot Singh Sidhu is finally out in open as the latter’s wife, Navjot Sidhu Kaur has alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh is responsible for her not getting the ticket to fight the Lok Sabha elections from the Amritsar seat.
Navjot Sidhu Kaur had alleged that Captain Amarinder Singh and Asha Kumari had denied her ticket to fight from the Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency on the grounds that her image might have tainted due to the Dussehra incident in which 60 innocent lives were lost. In addition to this, Kaur had even stated that Capt Amarinder Singh and Asha Kumari think that the Sidhu couple is incapable to do ‘some benefit for Punjab’. Kaur, who was also seeking a ticket from Chandigarh constituency had alleged that the CM had claimed that he alone was capable to lead Congress to victory on 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab.
Defending her wife’s allegations against Captain Amarinder Singh denying her LS ticket, Navjot Singh Sidhu contented that her wife will “never lie”. When asked about her wife’s allegations, the Tourism and Culture Minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu said, ” My wife has that much strength and moral authority that she will never lie.”
However, Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh has dismissed the allegations levelled against him by Navjot Sidhu Kaur claiming that she was offered a chance to fight from Amritsar or Bhatinda but she refused to fight on both the seats. Singh added, “Ticket allocation is done by the Congress leadership in Delhi and they had denied her application to fight from the Chandigarh seat. Chandigarh doesn’t come under Punjab and thus I had no role in her rejection.” Singh also said that if given a choice, he would have recommended Pawan Bansal, the party’s chosen candidate for Chandigarh seat.
Last year a tragedy befell due to administration negligence in Amritsar during an event in which Navjot Sidhu Kaur was the chief guest. The probe report pointed out that the organisers of the event, including councillor’s Vijay Madan’s son Mithu Madan, who is a close aide of the Navjot Sidhu, did not undertake proper safety measures and showed extreme negligence while managing crowd. Navjot Singh Sidhu had rubbed salt on the wounds of the victims and the bereaved families stating the accident as ‘Parmatma ka Prakop’ (wrath of the almighty).
Things went sour between Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu when despite Captain’s advise Navjot Singh Sidhu visited Pakistan on Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s invite for the Kartarpur groundbreaking ceremony. Captain had asked Sidhu to not visit Pakistan amidst the rising ceasefire violations by Pakistani soldiers along the border. At that time, Navjot Singh Sidhu had quipped, “My captain is Rahul Gandhi and he is the captain of the Captain(Amarinder Singh). Sidhu in a video said that Rahul Gandhi also provided a special plane to facilitate Navjot Singh Sidhu’s Pakistan visit. The relation between Captain and Sidhu further strained when the latter’s picture with Khalistani terrorist Gopal Singh Chawla did the rounds on the Internet.