Punjab election 2017: Time to restore state’s lost glory, says Navjot Sidhu

The Congress has won a big fight for its revival and now has to work hard for the revival of Punjab to its glorious days of the past, party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu said on Saturday.

“This is the revival of the Congress, it is just the beginning. Congress will spread from here,” he said at a press conference in Amritsar.

“For Rahul bhai, Sonia ji and Priyanka ji, and Captain Amarinder Singh, who is playing his final innings, it is a gift tied with a red ribbon from the Punjab Congress. It is a new year gift,” he said.

Punjab has a 117-member assembly. While Congress was leading in 76 seats, the AAP followed it with 22, while the Akali Dal-BJP combine was leading only in 17 seats.

In a veiled dig at the BJP, Sidhu quoted from the Bhagavad Gita and said Punjab’s voters ended the arrogance of some people and led truth to victory.

Sidhu also slammed Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, saying the Delhi chief minister deployed stooges and tried to create a wave on social media that ultimately led to his defeat.

Now, the time has come for us to work. Please give us a performance report after six months,” he told the crowd.

In a lighter vein, he joked about the support he received from his wife Navjot Kaur.

“If I was able to campaign across Punjab, the entire credit goes to party workers and to my wife. Patni hi toh jhande me danda he (it is the wife who helps a flag stay high),” he said to peals of laughter from the crowd and chants of “Sidhu zindabaad”

Meanwhile, Amarinder Singh, who won from the Patiala Urban seat by over 51,000 votes, said a Congress legislature party meeting has been called on Sunday that will decide the party’s future course of action.

Sidhu, a former BJP MP, who switched over to the Congress ahead of the elections and contested from Amritsar East which was held by his wife Navjot Kaur, said, “Thieves looted Punjab and filled their own coffers.”

The Congress will provide new energy to the state. “Congress will always fight for the rights of people of Punjab,” the cricketer-turned-politician said, adding, “it is the biggest victory of party workers”.

He said that the Congress, after coming to power in the state, would work selflessly for the progress of Punjab and will not act with any sense of vendetta against its opponents.

On the issue of drugs, he said a stringent law will be passed to end the menace.

“People have a lot of expectation from the Congress and we will strive hard to fulfill them,” he said.

Punjab will set an example of good governance and the state’s empty coffers will be refilled, he said, adding that the state’s lost glory will be brought back.

(With agency inputs)