Hours after claiming that Congress President Rahul Gandhi had asked him to visit Pakistan to attend the Kartarpur corridor ceremony, Punjab cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Saturday retracted his statement saying he went there on a personal invite by Pakistan PM Imran Khan.
Taking to Twitter Sidhu said, "Get your facts right before you distort them, Rahul Gandhi Ji never asked me to go to Pakistan. The whole world knows I went on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s personal invite".
Earlier on Friday, Sidhu had stated that Congress President Rahul Gandhi sent him everywhere and that the party chief was his 'captain'.
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"My captain is Rahul Gandhi. He sent me everywhere," Sidhu said to a query at a news conference in Hyderabad.
When asked why he ignored the advice of his captain to visit Pakistan. Sidhu told the media, "Which captain you are talking about. Oh.. Captain Amarinder Singh. He is Army Captain. My captain is Rahul Gandhi. Captain's captain is also Rahul Gandhi".
Sidhu was in Pakistan for Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony of the Kartarpur Corridor which will allow people from India to have visa-free access to Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara.
Stating that the Congress party has 50 to 100 senior leaders, he said they patted him on his back.
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The cricketer-turned-politician once again played down his photographs with pro-Khalistan elements which went viral during his three-day trip to the neighbouring country.
"When I was in Pakistan every day, 10,000 people were coming to me for selfies. How do I know who is Chawla and Cheema," he said adding that same fellow was there with Harsimrat and Longwell. "He was there everywhere. So how do I know him? This is absolute rubbish," he said on the allegations by BJP leaders.
"I am popular here. I won six elections. Ask Smriti Irani how many elections she won," he said reacting to the central minister's criticism.
(With inputs from agencies)
