Chandigarh: Senior Punjab Congress leader and former party state president Navjot Sidhu was released on Saturday from Patiala Central jail after completing his one-year-jail-term in a 35-year old road rage case.
Cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment in the said case by the Supreme Court on May 19, 2022, and he had surrendered before a Patiala court a day later. One Gurnam Singh, 65, then, had died after being beaten up by Sidhu over a parking issue in Patiala in 1988.
He was not given a special remission by the state government under Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav programme even though he was said to be eligible for his release on January 26, 2023.
Sidhu gets rousing welcome by supporters and party workers
Sidhu came out of the jail to a rousing welcome by the party workers and leaders who waited for him since forenoon, around 6 pm. Besides a large number of party workers, senior leaders including Gurjeet Aujla, MP, former state presidents and ministers, namely, Lal Singh, Samsher Singh Dullo and Mohinder Singh KP, waited to welcome him for more than six hours.
However, several senior leaders including the state unit president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and leader of opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, were conspicuous for their absence in Patiala.
Interacting with the newspersons briefly outside the jail, Sidhu lashed out at the state Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on the law and order issue and also took on the Central government. Stating that whenever such a situation had arisen in the country a revolution followed, and the name of which today, was Rahul Gandhi. Sidhu who avoided to speak on the issue of fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh on the occasion, however, held that he would soon be visiting the family of slain singer Sidhu Moosewala.
Key role likely in ensuing poll season
Meanwhile, even as Sidhu’s supporters sought a key role for him for his being a fire-brand senior leader and former state unit chief, it remained to be seen what role he would get. However, since he was said to be close to party top leadership namely Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, indications were that he might get a key role in the upcoming election season.
Pertinently, Sidhu’s release comes a few weeks ahead of Jalandhar Lok Sabha (a reserved SC seat) bye-election, scheduled to be held on May 10, 2023, necessitated in the wake of demise of Congress MP Santokh Chaudhary during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab.
However, doubts are rife if Sidhu would get a key role in the state party given his steep fall since in the past about a year’s time. Sidhu, about 60, is three-time MP (twice to Parliament on BJP ticket and once to Rajya Sabha) and had won the 2017 assembly elections from Amritsar (East) but had lost to a first-timer AAP candidate in February 2022 assembly polls.
He was appointed state party chief in 2021 and was the front-runner for the chief minister’s face for the February 2022 assembly elections. He even lost his Amritsar (east) assembly seat before landing in Patiala jail. He was also allegedly blamed for being a catalyst for causing bad blood in the party ahead of the poll year.
