Congress announced on Sunday that Navjot Singh Sidhu will formally join their party on Monday the 16th of January 2017. Sidhu’s wife Navjot and former Olympian and ex-Akali Pargat Singh had joined the congress on November 28th last year. But The Tribune has reported that Sidhu did not want to join the party before Makar Sankranti as he believes in stars.
Sidhu met with Congress Vice- President Rahul Gandhi at his residence on Sunday after the party issued a statement welcoming the former cricketer into their fold. Sidhu will formally join the Congress party at 11am today at the party headquarters in Delhi.
Sidhu, who represented Amritsar in the Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014, had resigned from BJP in September 2016. He had then formed a new political party by the name of “Awaaz-e-Punjab” along with former hockey captain Pargat Singh and Punjab MLAs Simarjit Singh Bains and Balwant Singh Bains. This alliance was dissolved when the Bains brother decided to go their own way.
Now, as the situation stands, Sidhu will contest the Amritsar East seat where his wife is a sitting MP and which was part of his former Lok Sabha seat of Amritsar. Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh will file his nomination from Lambi against Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu will go against Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Lalalabad. The Congress has also announced that Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu will visit Darbar Sahib on January 19th and will also hold a joint press conference and a road show in Amritsar
Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh filing nomination papers Source: Hindustan Times
