Punjab elections 2017: Congress' Navjot Singh Sidhu is contesting from Amritsar East constituency
Amritsar:
Navjot Singh Sidhu spent months in negotiations with the Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress before deciding on the latter as his next political posting. He joined in January and has since been a star campaigner for his new party, drawing mega crowds. Mr Sidhu was a BJP member of Parliament from Amritsar in Punjab for ten years before the party decided to field now union minister Arun Jaitley from the constituency instead in 2014, which eventually led to the cricketer-turned-politician quitting the party last year.
Here are 10 things to know about Navjot Singh Sidhu:
- Navjot Sidhu is contesting the Punjab Assembly elections this time from the Amritsar East constituency. His wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu quit as a BJP legislator to join the Congress, but is not contesting this year's assembly elections.
- Navjot Sidhu, 63, was born in Punjab's Patiala. His father, a Congressman, also played cricket and always wanted his son to be top cricketer.
- Navjot Sidhu made his Test debut against the West Indies in Ahmedabad in 1983, when he was 20. He played his last Test against New Zealand in 1999.
- A right hand batsman, Sidhu played 51 Test matches scoring 9 centuries and 136 One Day Internationals, with six centuries. His 201 against West Indies in 1996-97, batting for over 11 hours is considered his bets innings.
- Mr Sidhu's second career as a commentator was equally energetic, known for his inimitable one liners and mixed metaphors now called Sidhuisms.
- He continues to be a commentator and appears on comic TV shows. The Sidhuisms also lace his political speeches. Mr Sidhu entered politics in 2004, contesting and winning the parliamentary elections from Amristar. He won a second term in 2009.
- Navjot Sidhu resigned from the Rajya Sabha in July last year, months after the BJP had nominated him in what was seen as a consolation prize for not fielding him for the Lok Sabha election of 2014.
- Arun Jaitley, who was fielded instead lost to the Congress' Amarinder Singh and local BJP leaders accused Navjot Sidhu of sabotaging Mr Jaitley's election. His relations with the party went downhill thereafter.
- After resigning from the Rajya Sabha and before he officially quit the BJP, Mr Sidhu held protracted negotiations with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party. Things reportedly didn't work out because Mr Sidhu wanted to be named presumptive chief minister.
- The deal to Congress took weeks to happen and was reportedly crafted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi's daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, one of two important political deals that she has openly been credited for by the party in this year's assembly elections. The other is her party's alliance in UP with Akhilesh Yadav's Samjawadi Party.
