A Times of India report says “it was Priyanka Gandhi who made the first calls to Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh and Congress leader in charge of Punjab affairs Asha Kumari and asked them to meet the Sidhus.
The report has the graphic details of the talks between Priyanka and Navjot Singh Sidhu, who blessed with gift of jab, commented that she is a spitting image of her grandmother Indira Gandhi. And she returned the complment saying she was her favourtie sportsman during childhood.
“This mutual admiration laid the foundation for the former opening batsman to form an alliance with Congress ahead of the 2017 assembly election in Punjab, sources in the party said.”
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Navjot Kaur Sidhu, wife of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu, will join the Congress on November 28, Punjab Congress unit chief Captain Amarinder Singh said on Wednesday.
Sources in the party say all this is largely because of Priyanka's growing involvement in the Punjab campaign.
This comes days after Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh had said former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu is not in talks with Congress and no one from the party is in touch with him. He had said Sidhu was welcome to join the Congress "unconditionally".
It was reported earlier that Sidhu wanted a pre-poll alliance which didnt require him to merge his newborn party Awaaz-e-Punjab with the Congress ahead of assembly elections early next year. But Amarinder, the party’s presumptive chief minister, was against it and wanted Sidhu to join his party.
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Sidhu, a long-time BJP man, had strained his relationship with the BJP when the party decided to field Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, a constituency he held from 2004 to 2014, in the Lok Sabha elections. Jaitley, however, lost from the “safe seat” to Captain Amrinder Singh of the Congress.
He quit his Rajya Sabha membership on July 18 and floated of a "non-political" platform Awaz-e-Punjab.
