Ex-Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu joins Congress

Desk Report: Former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu formally joined the Congress on Sunday after meeting party vice president Rahul Gandhi.

 

However, the formal joining will take place at the Congress headquarters in Delhi on Monday. Sidhu had resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party on September 14.

 

Sidhu is likely to contest upcoming Punjab assembly elections from Amritsar east, where his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu is the sitting MLA. She joined Congress in November last.

 

The 53-year-old is known as a star vote-catcher who is likely to help the Congress overcome a strong fight from the Akali Dal and the AAP in the Punjab assembly elections. The northern state goes to the polls on February 4 and the Congress is hoping to come back to power after a decade.

 

Having won three consecutive Lok Sabha elections from the state beginning 2004, Sidhu is a popular face in Punjab and may prove to be an asset for the Congress, which aims fend off competition from the Aam Aadmi Party and unseat the Akali Dal-BJP combine.

 

In a press statement, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said: “… Known for his straight talking, ideological commitment to the cause of Nationalism as also wit and humour, we are certain that Congress Party will be immensely strengthened in Punjab and elsewhere with the entry of S. Sidhu.”

 

Source: Agencies

 

risingbd/DHAKA/15 Jan 2017/Augustin Sujan