M A I N   N E W S

Daggers drawn, Sidhus drop exit bombshell
Tribune News Service

Kamal Sharma

Chandigarh, February 5
Daggers are drawn within the Punjab BJP, with firebrand Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu threatening to exit the party if her MP-husband Navjot Sidhu continued to be sidelined. She also said Sidhu will not contest the election if not fielded from Amritsar.

In an obvious snub, BJP state president Kamal Sharma said the two leaders were not familiar with the party structure given their frequent public outbursts and questioned their induction. “They have not had a regimented induction in the party and are, therefore, raising issues in public. They should either air their grievances in the party or with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal,” he said.

Though the tussle between the Sidhus and the Kamal Sharma camp in the state BJP is nothing new, the provocation for today’s outburst was an issue raised by the CPS (Health) at a press conference earlier in the day. Dr Sidhu threatened to take her government (BJP and SAD are coalition partners) to court if they did not re-impose sin tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products within 15 days. Sin tax is a higher level of VAT on tobacco products to discourage usage. Last month, the Punjab Cabinet had approved its withdrawal, thereby reducing VAT on tobacco products from 55 per cent to 22 per cent.

In a clear signal of yet another revolt, Dr Sidhu told mediapersons, “We will definitely revolt if pushed to the wall. We will straightaway put in our papers.” Batting for AAP, she said, “AAP is undoubtedly a very big phenomenon. Instead of casting unnecessary aspersions, the people and media must give it five years to perform.”

Launching her tirade against Sharma, she said, “How can things be fine with Kamal Sharma? Actually, there was no working relation between the two (her husband and the Punjab BJP chief) at any point in time.”

“The biggest grievance of Amritsar MP Navjot Sidhu was that his team was never given an opportunity to perform or to strengthen his base in his constituency. Our grievance is against our party high command. Barring one odd event, the SAD government also did not give him any importance,” she said.

Sharma, who held a separate press conference in the afternoon, reacted to the outbursts, saying he would meet Dr Sidhu later in the evening and try and remove her grievances. “The Sidhus had earlier also said they were being sidelined and projects in Amritsar were being deliberately delayed. We had taken up the matter with the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister and the issue was resolved. It takes time to implement projects and a lot of projects for Amritsar have been sanctioned by the government,” he said.

Sharma said he wanted Navjot Sidhu to contest from Amritsar as he had been representing the constituency for three consecutive terms. “He is also the party’s known Sikh face. The party’s Central Election Committee is meeting tomorrow and the names of candidates for Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur will be forwarded,” he said.

Sharma said Sidhu’s name was being considered from Amritsar and Som Prakash was a frontrunner for the party ticket in Hoshiarpur.

When asked about his party colleague and senior BJP minister Anil Joshi enrolling as a voter at two places, Sharma said he had spoken to Joshi and asked him about it. "Joshi told me he had not been served a notice by the Election Commission and that he was seeking legal advice. He also told me he voted only at one place.”