It’s a routine that Navjot Singh Sidhu has followed for years. First a visit to the temple inside his sprawling home in Amritsar. Then matha tekna (pay obeisance) in the small gurudwara inside his house.
Is he seeking divine help for himself, as his party is all set to announce a chief ministerial face for the February 20 Punjab polls? Will he be disappointed? “Disappointments are meant to be cremated, not embalmed," he says to News18.com. “I decided to support Bhai (Rahul Gandhi), and when he called me, he told me we are losing and he needs me. I said fine. I am not supporting with any conditions."
While Sidhu is very evasive as to whether he would want to be the chief minister, there are occasions when his hope comes across. “I told Bhai, you need to be decentralised. You can’t have the same system. It needs to change. People want change and AAP offers change. But then people may not see us differently as we have not shown our entire Congress. We have to be above corruption. Anyone who is associated with corruption, with liquor mafia or sand mafia cannot bring that change," he says.
In fact, Sidhu, who is often dismissed as a political novice, has made two things his pitch for the elections. One is justice in sacrilege cases, and the other is the fight against drugs. For this, he has no hesitation in taking on his own party and CM at times. Says Sidhu, “I am not scared. There is a mafia and this is what they fear from me."
Today, Sidhu is also facing the man from his constituency who he has been attacking —Bikram Majithia. But Sidhu says he is not scared. “These people are gundas (goons). They are part of a mafia. They want me to go because they know if I come, they will be finished. This man Majithia used to drive in an Altis; today he travels in a fleet of range rovers. They will be picked up by the courts. They are all scared of me," he says.
But is his party scared of him? There is a worry, which is adding to the Congress problems, that if Charanjit Singh Channi is chosen as the CM face and not Sidhu, the state unit (Pradesh Congress Committee) could create trouble. “I am used to people making allegations about me. There have been many conspiracies against me. I take this as a compliment," Sidhu says. “They are all rotten eggs."
It is difficult for the Congress to overlook Channi’s Dalit credentials. It could have a ripple effect on the party’s plans to woo the community for the 2024 general elections. And this is one factor that could go in favour of Channi. I ask Sidhu this: “You say in the context of Sunil Jakhar that one should not play caste politics. You think even in the CM choice they shouldn’t?"
Sidhu’s hidden angst comes out. “Do I even need to say this? The Gandhis are very intelligent. They know what they are doing."
But it’s a fact that Sidhu campaigns in a silo. And some of his supporters feel he is being sidelined by his own party and gets little infrastructure help. “No this is not true. I am the PCC chief. I have nothing to worry about," he says.
But Sidhu, who has made opponents across parties and also some within his own because of his brazen, often brusque style of speaking, is at a crossroads as far as his political career is concerned. Though he says he would be happy to be just an MLA, the man who has fought to be where he is and who also helped the Congress remove Amarinder Singh would clearly want a cut.
Sidhu is popular for his one-liners or “Sidhuisms". He tells News18.com, “No one can silence me. Only two people can silence me. One is Amitabh Bachchan and the other is Sonia Gandhi."
While today Sidhu may be silent on his ambitions, his close friends say it could be the lull before the storm.
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