Differences with Sukhbir Badal kin Majithia may cost sulking Navjot Singh Sidhu Amritsar seat
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Akali Dal wants ally BJP to field Arun Jaitley from Amritsar in 2014 Lok Sabha polls
His differences with Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, may cost sulking BJP MP from Amritsar Navjot Singh Sidhu heavy.
Even as BJP president Rajnath Singh Friday stepped in to pacify the cricketer-turned politician, who is said to be upset with the party leadership for 'sidelining' and 'ignoring' him, the Shiromani Akali Dal saffron party's senior ally in Punjab describing it as BJP's "internal" matter.
"It is a matter with which we are not concerned. It is between the party and Sidhu," said Daljeet Singh Cheema, SAD spokesperson.
Cheema's statement came even as Rajnath Singh spoke to Sidhu in the morning and assured him of looking into his grievances. It also came at a time when the SAD, sources said, is pushing for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley's candidature from Amritsar in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Sidhu, the three-time Amristar MP will meet Rajnath in Delhi after the ongoing IPL cricket tournament gets over, sources said even as the sulking politician was not available for comments.
The cricketer-turned-politician has been sulking for quite some time and the matter precipitated after he was recently dropped from Singh's new list of BJP office-bearers. He was Secretary in BJP during Nitin Gadkari's tenure as president.
Though the SAD chose to keep quiet on the issue, there is no love lost between the party leadership in Amritsar and Sidhu. His differences with revenue minister and SAD's Amritsar in-charge Majithia is an open secret and SAD sees the current crisis in BJP as an opportunity to ensure that Sidhu is not fielded from Amritsar at all.
"He (Sidhu) has remained an absentee MP in Amritsar and it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the BJP to win the seat in the forthcoming parliamentary polls if he is fielded," said a senior SAD leader requesting not to be named.
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