Navjot Singh Sidhu, who quit the Rajya Sabha earlier this month after being asked to stay from Punjab by the Bhartiya Janata Party, is likely to join Aam Aadmi Party in the second week of August.
Sources in the AAP said Sidhu will formally join the party next month, possibly in the second week of August. They said August 15 was a probable date.
He is likely to be inducted as a "star campaigner" ahead of the assembly polls next year. Sidhu's wife Navjot Kaur is also likely to join with him.
As per the constitution of AAP, two members belonging to the same family cannot simultaneously be office-bearers or contest polls.
The 52-year-old former cricketer, who had a long innings with the BJP in Punjab, has alleged that the party had asked him to stay away from Punjab to serve "personal interests".
AAP is giving a tough fight to the ruling BJP-SAD alliance and Congress in Punjab, and is hoping to cash in on Sidhu's popularity to bolster its chances in the state election.
AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has welcomed Sidhu's decision to quit Rajya Sabha as "brave" and has also called him a "nice" man.
Sidhu, however, has not disclosed his plans yet.
Earlier this week, he parried queries during a media interaction on whether he would join AAP, saying he will be standing wherever the interest of Punjab are served.
Sidhu has alleged he was told to remain away from Punjab to "serve personal interests," apparently suggesting that the BJP was acting under ally Shiromani Akali Dal's pressure.
“I resigned from Rajya Sabha because I was told not to look towards Punjab. How can Navjot Sidhu leave his people?” Sidhu said in a press conference in Delhi.
“No political party is above Punjab, no party is bigger than Punjab,” Sidhu said in a media address full of poetic references.
Sidhu, who was asked to vacate his Amritsar Lok Sabha seat for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, made open his grouse with the party for keeping him away from his favoured seat. “When Modi wave came, it drowned me as well, along with the opposition.”
Sidhu has had a running feud with the Akalis, who have accused him of "opportunists". They have said that "fugitive" leaders like Sidhu have no place in state politics and people will teach him a lesson.
