CHANDIGARH: Congress leader Navjot Kaur Sidhu stoked a controversy Tuesday, alleging that it was Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and party general secretary in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari who ensured that she was denied the Lok Sabha ticket from Amritsar.
"Captain Sahib and Asha Kumari think Madam Sidhu does not deserve an MP ticket. I was denied the ticket from Amritsar on the ground that I could not win in the aftermath of the Dussehra train tragedy in Amritsar last year," she told reporters in Amritsar on Monday.
Kaur, wife of Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, said the chief minister thought that he was alone capable of leading the party to victory in all 13 seats of Punjab.
"Look, Amarinder Singh is our junior captain. Rahul Gandhi is our senior captain. Our junior captain has said he would win all 13 seats by himself," she said, indicating that she might not campaign for the party in the state.
"Captain Sahib will do the campaigning. Asha Kumari is also a star campaigner. Sidhu sahib will go wherever Rahul asks him to go," the disgruntled Congress leader added.
Earlier, Navjot Kaur Sidhu had staked claim to the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat but the party chose former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal over her as he has been a four-time MP from Chandigarh.
In Amritsar, the Congress has pitted sitting MP Gurjit Singh Aujla against the SAD-BJP nominee Hardeep Singh Puri.
The Amritsar constituency was represented by her husband and Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu as a BJP leader on three occasions.
Her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu, too, had claimed last year that it was Congress chief Rahul Gandhi who was his captain, taking a jibe at Amarinder Singh.
Punjab's 13 Lok Sabha seats will go to the polls in the last phase on May 19.