We know Navjot Singh Sidhu as a man with a loud sense of humour and his even louder wardrobe. He is on television all the time, laughing with gusto at the jokes cracked by comedian Kapil Sharma and is also a regular figure during the IPL tournament, doing a post mortem of games with his characteristic brand of jokes and shayiris. During his commentary days, his quips were known as Sidhuisms,
But Sidhu is also a politician and used to be a Lok Sabha MP from Amritsar. Those days, he was a sharp critic of the Badals of Akali Dal, till his party, the BJP asked him to maintain a diplomatic silence. In the 2014 elections, Sidhu was asked to step down in favour of Arun Jaitley, something he did most reluctantly. Jaitley lost, an improbable outcome at a time when a BJP wave was supposed to be sweeping the country. Sidhu was even more upset.
Recently, the BJP, aware that one of the prominent figures from Punjab was angry though silent, gave him a Rajya Sabha nomination. That was supposed to have kept him happy, but this week, Sidhu pulled a surprise, when he quit the Rajya Sabha and the party. Something like this has not happened before. What is more, the BJP had no inkling that this was coming, otherwise they would have at least tried to dissuade him.
Rumours are rife that Sidhu will join the Aam Aadmi Party and become their ‘face’ for the post of the chief minister’s chair. Will that help AAP win? Perhaps not, but it will certainly be a booster for the fledgling party which has jumped into the fray in Punjab. It could cut into Congress votes and certainly also affect the BJP in a few constituencies. Moreover, for those looking for an alternative to the Badals, the high profile Sidhu could be a rallying point. At the very least, this is a political embarrassment for the BJP, which has barely recovered from the coup pulled off by the Congress in Arunachal under its very nose.
Ever since the BJP won a handsome victory in May 2014, confounding pollsters and pundits alike by getting a majority, a first by any party in 30 years, much praise has been heaped on the party’s political acumen. Most of the credit has been given to Amit Shah, who, as party president, had worked out the exact caste and religious combination – and a polarisation policy — that was electorally successful.
Following the general elections, the party won in Rajasthan too, where the Ashok Gehlot government had lost popularity and then in Haryana and Maharashtra, even if a full majority remained outside its grasp. But a BJP chief minister sitting in Mantralaya was a long standing dream that was fulfilled, much to the chagrin of Shiv Sena and the party is now in the driver’s seat in the state.
But after that initial burst of successes, the BJP has been losing every where — if Delhi was a washout, with only 3 MLAs to show in the end, the crucial state of Bihar was no less a loss. Assam was a bright spot for the party, but it remained a virtual non-entity in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Three major state elections are looming in the next year or so — Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab. The party will not want to lose in any of them; in Gujarat, since Narendra Modi’s departure, the state has seen major agitations which Anandiben Patel has simply not been able to handle. If the state slips out of the BJP’s hands, it will be a political loss of face. Indeed, in some ways, Gujarat has more symbolic value than any other state.
The BJP cannot afford to put up a poor show in these elections. The recent cabinet reshuffle was done keeping the elections in mind. Four Dalit leaders were named as ministers to woo voters from the community, but recent events, such as the lynching in Gujarat and the demolition of Ambedkar house in Mumbai has angered them. The party may be in the danger of losing Dalit voters unless it does something to win them back.
With such high stakes, the BJP should be keeping its flock together — losing Sidhu could have an impact in Punjab. At the time of writing this column, the ex-cricketer has not made it apparent where he is heading, but the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has already congratulated him though he has not yet made a categorical statement that Sidhu will be the CM candidate. Those from AAP who had been critical of him in the past have deleted their tweets. Perhaps negotiations are under way. Besides, there is also the question of his wife, also called Navjot, who is a BJP member — AAP does not allow husband and wife to contest elections together. But there is always a way out — AAP could send him to Rajya Sabha on its own strength. Whatever it turns out to be, his exit from the BJP is already creating waves — it remains to be seen who gets affected from the turbulence the most.
