Navjot Singh Sidhu formally resigned from the BJP on Wednesday, but his wife Navjot Kaur, a BJP MLA, will stay behind until her husband floats a political outfit to fight the upcoming elections in Punjab.
Sidhu quit his Rajya Sabha seat on July 18 and announced the formation of a “non-political” platform titled Awaz-e-Punjab. But on Wednesday, in his resignation letter to BJP chief Amit Shah he made clear his intention to fight the Punjab Assembly polls under the banner of the new political entity.
“Long association with party. Painful decision,” Sidhu said in the letter.
Navjot Kaur said her husband had to formally resign to clear the air as propaganda had started against him that he was acting as an agent to bring back the Badal government.
Prabhat Jha, the BJP man in charge of aunjab Affairs, said the party has accepted the resignation.
Asked if she would join her husband, Navjot Kaur, MLA from Amritsar(East, said, “Definitely, I will be part of it. But first he has to float a (political party. Awaaz-e-Punjab is now just a front, where only discussions take place.”
Asked when she would resign, she said, “I am waiting for the BJP to throw me out. If they suspend me for my honesty, I will be thankful to them (BJP.”
Sidhu, a 52-year-old former cricketer, represented Amritsar in the Lok Sabha between 2004 and 2014, fell out with the BJP last month, accusing the party of using him as a “decorative piece” and trying to keep him out of Punjab.
The couple’s political future has been the subject of
speculation. Initially, there was talk of their joining the Aam Aadmi Party and of Sidhu becoming the face of the party in the Assembly polls next year, but his bitter attack against Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal put paid to it.