You will lose your election security deposit: Punjab CM Amarinder Singh challenges Navjot Singh Sidhu

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Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh came down heavily on Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for continuously attacking and criticising him and his government and labelling his outbursts as 'total indiscipline'. The Punjab Chief Minister suggested that he may be leaving for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). 

The Punjab CM also dared the ex-Punjab minister and Amritsar MLA to contest Assembly polls against him from Patiala. "Sidhu is speaking every day. Has any day passed when he did not speak," Amamrinder Singh said, adding that Sidhu has no agenda but to attack them. He does not know in which party he is," the CM said breaking his silence over Sidhu's consistent attacks against the Congress government.

Neither BJP nor Akali will take back Navjot Singh Sidhu: Amarinder Singh

"If he is in the Congress Party, then it is total indiscipline. Why should he utter such things? May be he is trying to go with the AAP? BJP will not take him back. The same thing is with the Akali Dal so where will he go? Either he will stay with us or switch sides,? said the Punjab CM in an interview to a TV channel.

CM Amarinder Singh's comments have come in the wake of the Amritsar MLA criticising him and his government over cases related to the desecration of religion texts and subsequent firing incidents at people protesting against it in Punjab's Faridkot in 2015. The Congress MLA has been critical of his own government after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed a probe report into the Kotkapura firing case earlier this month. He had attacked Amarinder Singh, accusing him of evading responsibility in the case.

Sidhu is welcome to contest from Patiala: CM Amarinder Singh 

To a question on Sidhu's frequent visits to Patiala, the CM said if he wants to contest from Patiala, he is welcome. "The ex-minister will lose his security deposits like former Army chief JJ Singh, who contested against him in the 2017 Assembly polls," CM Singh said. "That is what I am saying he should make it clear where he wants to go. If he is attacking his own chief minister, it means he is preparing to go," he said.

"If he wanted to go then he should go. Nobody listens to him anymore. Do whatever he wants to do. It is a free country," he said.

On media reports suggesting Sidhu wanted to be the deputy chief minister or the Punjab Congress chief, the CM said Sunil Jakhar is doing a very good job as the state party president. He questioned how could a person who joined the party just four years ago be made the state unit chief. Why should Sidhu be made the deputy chief minister, said Singh while reasoning that all Cabinet ministers were senior to him. He, however, said the decision on giving any position to Sidhu is to be taken by the party high command. He said if the party sought his opinion, he would say the same thing.

The tension between Amarinder Singh and Sidhu had come out in the open in May 2019 when the CM blamed the former cricketer for the "inept handling" of the Local Government Department, claiming it had resulted in "poor performance" of the Congress in urban areas in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Sidhu was stripped of key portfolios in a cabinet reshuffle, after which he resigned from the state cabinet.

Navjot Singh Sidhu and Amarinder Singh had last month met over tea and at that time, the CM had expressed confidence that Sidhu would be back in his Cabinet.