Ending months of speculation, former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu today formally joined Congress after a meeting with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi here.
He is likely to contest from Amritsar East seat in upcoming Assembly elections. The seat is held by his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu who joined the Congress in November last year.
"Indian National Congress (INC) welcomes S Navjot Singh Sidhu into Congress family and we thank Congress Vice President for his visionary approach in bringing together like-minded people on common platform under the Congress umbrella," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a statement.
"Known for straight taking, ideological commitment to the cause of nationalism as also wit and humour, we are certain that Congress party will be immensely strengthened in Punjab and elsewhere with the entry of Sidhu," said the statement posted on the party twitter handle.
Sidhu had resigned from the Rajya Sabha as BJP member on July 18 last year and speculations were rife that he would join the Aam Aadmi Party as the Chief Ministerial candidate for Punjab.
However, negotiations between the party and cricketer-turned-politicians did not yield any results and Sidhu formed his own political outfit, Awaaz-e-Punjab along with former India hockey captain and suspended Akali MLA Pargat Singh and Ludhiana-based powerful independent state lawmakers and brothers Simarjeet and Balwinder Singh Bains.
While Bains brothers have enetered in a pre-poll alliance with the AAP, Pargat Singh joined the Congress along with Sidhu’s wife.
Sidhu has been assured of "significant" role in Punjab if it formed government in the state, according to his wife Navjot Kaur.
