Cricketer-turned-BJP politician Navjot Singh Sidhu quits Rajya Sabha maybe heading for alliance with AAP

Punjab July 19:Former cricketer and BJP politician Navjot Singh Sidhu called it a day as he quit his BJP-nominated Rajya Sabha seat.In the process of resigning from the Rajya Sabha seat ,Sidhu has sent the clear message to the higher echelons in the BJP that he will be contesting for the chief ministerial seat in the coming 2017 Punjab assembly elections.

Even though he has not made it evident amid reports that he will join the Punjab wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the run-up to the assembly polls vying for the chief ministerial candidate post.

The decision by the  52-year-old politician, is seen as a culmination of his tense equation with BJP ever since he was denied the party ticket from Amritsar constituency which he had represented thrice in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

After handing in his resignation to the RS chairman Hamid Ansari,  Sidhu issued a terse statement clarifying that he had accepted the Rajya Sabha nomination at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for welfare of his state, Punjab.

His says that with the closure of every window leading to Punjab, the purpose of the seat is defeated.

Welcoming the news ,frontline AAP leaders gave hints that Sidhu would be joining their party wing as its trump card in Punjab and that they are expecting him to take on a big role in the state.

It is a matter of time before he meets with Kerjriwal in a few days to discuss his agenda with AAP in Punjab.

Mr Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur,a BJP MLA in Amritsar East constituency and a chief parliamentary secretary in the SAD-BJP government in Punjab, is also set to resign. She had announced her resignation on Facebook earlier .

It is presumed that she has been involved in a year-long negotiation with Kejriwal’s outfit over projecting Sidhu as the chief minister as a precondition for his joining.

Offering the sulking Sidhu a Rajya Sabha seat was an attempt to placate his nerves that remained frayed ever since BJP nominated Jaitley for the Amritsar seat.

It was also aimed at preventing Sidhu from joining AAP by trying to pacify him for not being granted the Amritsar ticket.

Just two-and-a-half months into the tenure as MP Sidhu’s resignation, will obviously hurt. the BJP as the only Sikh face that BJP had ever developed. The BJP has lost an ally and renewed a threat to the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab who has seen Sidhu’s rising popularity as a threat to their dominance.

Sidhu responded by refusing to campaign for Jaitley in Amritsar and visited the city only after Jaitley had lost by over a lakh votes to Captain Amarinder Singh.

For the AAP, Sidhu’s joining will be the final piece of the Punjab jigsaw. he will have emerged as clear frontrunner for 2017, leaving the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal and a resurgent Congress in its wake.