New Delhi: Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Tuesday said that cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu will not have any impact on the upcoming Assembly Elections in the state.
During a discussion at an event here, Badal said that Sidhu did not have any ideology to follow since he was about to join Congress.
"I have no grudge against Sidhu. I always supported him. However, he criticised me to remain in the news. I do not think he will make any impact in the election. He will be a non-player. Now, he is interested in Congress. He had criticised Congress earlier. He had bargained with the Aam Adami Party. What could be his ideology since he has put himself in the market for a bargain?" he said.
Notably, Sidhu resigned from the BJP recently. His wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party on October 8, joined the Congress last month.
There is a speculation that Navjot Singh Sidhu, after joining the Congress, will contest by-poll for the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, which was vacated by Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on November 11 in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict on a Presidential reference on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue.
Meanwhile, Badal rejected Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal`s influence, saying that the AAP "will not win over nine seats in the election".
Badal further said that the Punjab was being shown in the bad light over drug issue. He tried to pass the buck to the Border Security Force (BSF) for the failure in controlling the drug menace.
"Since there are no sand dunes or marshy land like in Gujarat and Rajasthan and strong Army presence like in Jammu and Kashmir, drugs are smuggled into Punjab from Pakistan easily. Our police do not have access to the area of 10 km from the border. Yet, our police took strict action, preventing drug smuggling to Delhi, Mumbai, and Goa," he said.
"We carried out drug test in which about four lakh people participated but just 1.26 percent were found positive. News media has shown the youth of Punjab in a bad light. We will leave politics if even 10 percent of the population of any village is found positive."
Badal said his father and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal would head the state again if the party is voted back to power.
(With IANS inputs)
