Navjot Kaur Sidhu's husband Navjot Singh Sidhu had resigned from the BJP last month
Highlights
- Navjot Kaur Sidhu was BJP legislator from Armitsar in Punjab.
- She sent a one-line resignation letter to the party's Punjab chief.
- Her Husband Navjot Singh Sidhu had also recently resigned from the BJP
Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, has resigned from the BJP.
Ms Sidhu, a BJP legislator from Punjab, sent a one-line resignation to the party president at the Punjab BJP headquarters. The party has accepted her resignation.
Her husband had resigned as a nominated member of the Rajya Sabha in July this year and formally quit the BJP earlier this month after launching a forum called the Awaaz-e-Punjab. For weeks, he was in talks to join the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP but Mr Sidhu said they had fallen through because AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal wants "only yes men."
Mr Sidhu said the Delhi chief minister had asked him not to contest the Punjab elections, offering to make his wife a minister instead if AAP won in Punjab.
He had also turned down an invitation from the Congress to join that party.
However, Mr Sidhu recently abandoned the idea of following through with a new political party to contest the Punjab elections, leading to speculation about a renewal of negotiations with AAP.
Mr Sidhu had said he is inviting parties to ally with his forum, which he emphasised is not political, "for the betterment of Punjab".
A severe indictment of both the ruling Akali Dal and the main opposition Congress seems to leave a window open for a tie-up with the AAP, the third major party contesting the Punjab assembly elections to be held early next year.
The cricketer-turned-politician said he had decided "not to play spoilsport and ...and divide the anti-incumbency vote bank which could indirectly benefit the corroborative and collusive Badal-Amarinder nexus which has plundered Punjab in the last 15 years".