'1 Soul, 2 Bodies': Navjot Sidhu's Wife Hints Expect Him In Congress Too

Chandigarh: Navjot Singh Sidhu, the cricketer-turned-politician, will soon be a member of the Congress, his wife, Navjot Kaur hinted today, after formally joining the party herself.

"We are like one soul in two bodies. The body has to follow the soul," said Navjot Kaur, exhibiting the sort of verbal flourish that her spouse has built a career on.

Captain Amarinder Singh, who is the Congress' presumptive Chief Minister, appeared to agree. "If Mrs Sidhu is here, do you think Mr Sidhu is not going to come with us (Congress)?"

In September, Mr Sidhu left the BJP 12 years after joining it. His wife, who represented the party in the Punjab legislature, resigned from the party last month. The 52-year-old former cricketer then formed his own party, the Awaaz-e-Punjab, and said he would run as its Chief Ministerial candidate in the approaching election.  His wife said she would join him.  

But the BJP's loss- Mr Sidhu is a popular leader in Amritsar - was quickly converted into a lead by the Congress, which spent weeks in pursuit of the couple. Negotiations were reportedly handled by Prashant Kishor, the election strategist hired by the party for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Navjot Kaur has allegedly been promised a job as a minister if the party wins; Mr Sidhu has been told he will get to contest the Amristar parliamentary constituency, which the BJP took away from him and assigned to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in 2014, who lost the election to Captain Singh.  

Though Mr Sidhu was made a member of the Rajya Sabha by the BJP, he felt marginalized.

After stepping out of the BJP, the Sidhus flirted for a while with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, but the political dalliance proved brief, reportedly because the couple wanted two leading roles, and Mr Kejriwal felt this would be seen as the sort of family-crowding that his party has declared anathema.