Sidhu backs wife over ticket denial charge, says she won’t lie

Chandigarh

Senior Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Thursday backed his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu over her statement on the denial of ticket for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.

Rallying around his wife for her allegations that she was denied ticket at the behest of Capt Amarinder Singh and party’s state affairs incharge Asha Kumari, Sidhu said, “My wife has much courage and moral authority that she will never lie. This is my reply.” The Congress leader said this at a press conference here on Thursday.

On May 14, Navjot Kaur had stated that the CM and party’s state affairs incharge had ensured that she does not get the ticket from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency. “My ticket from Amritsar was denied on the grounds that I cannot win because of the last year’s Amritsar train mishap.”

Terming her allegations as baseless, the CM had stated that she had been offered the ticket from Bathinda, which she denied.

Following this, Sidhu had been under fire from leaders for not campaigning in Punjab, before he showed up at Priyanka Gandhi’s rally in Bathinda on May 14.

On Sidhu’s absence from campaigning in the state, the CM had said, “It’s not my job or anyone else’s to call him up. It is his responsibility to campaign for the party here. Does he need a special car to pick him up? If he is campaigning in the entire country, what prevents him from coming here?”

Meanwhile, answering a query as to why mafias were still operating despite the party, in its manifesto, had promise to eradicate the same, Sidhu said, “I have prepared a report on sand mining and proposed reasonable rates. The report is lying with the Chief Minister. He has overriding powers.”

On cable mafia, he said he had taken up the draft of Act to regulate the cable TV business at least 85 times with the government. “I just wanted that we should have enough power to know about the number of connections. I am not complaining, but I will defeat the vested interests.”

Earlier, Sidhu took on the Badals over the issue of farm debt waiver, claiming that the SAD-BJP government had failed in settling a single rupee of farmers’ loan, despite bringing the Punjab Settlement of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 2016.

My ticket from Amritsar was denied on the grounds that I cannot win because of the last year’s Amritsar train mishap. — Navjot Kaur Sidhu, Congress Leader

My wife has much courage and moral authority that she will never lie. This is my reply. — Navjot Singh Sidhu, Cabinet Minister