The Sidhu Factor- AAP's Power Play

Cricketer-turned-neta Navjot Sidhu’s next move may well be a game-changer in the Punjab polls.

- Asit Jolly

When Navjot Sidhu got up to speak at the joint Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party rally at Ajitwal village in Punjab’s Moga District on December 8, 2006, he completely eclipsed everybody else. At his garrulous best, the cricketer and television comic-turned-politician had the crowd, spilling way beyond the 20-acre pandal, eating out of his hands. After the 20-minute speech, littered with ‘Sidhuisms’—the smart-alecky one-liners that are his other claim to fame—they had no appetite for anything else, not the sage words of octogenarian Parkash Singh Badal, whose 80th birthday occasion it was, and definitely not for Sukhbir Badal. Much to the chagrin of the Badals, the crowds began thinning out soon after Sidhu had finished. Sitting on stage, Sidhu looked smug.

Mainstream political parties in poll-bound Punjab—the ruling SADBJP alliance with the anti-incumbency accumulated over two successive terms in office, and the Congress, which is hoping for a resurrection under the charismatic Capt Amarinder Singh— clearly believe they have much to fear from the former India opener.

If he retains any of the popular appeal so much on display during his years as MP from Amritsar, 52-year old Sidhu’s imminent entry into the Aam Aadmi Party—after his rather dramatic decision, on July 18, to quit his seat as a BJP nominated member of the Rajya Sabha—could well be the ultimate game-changer in Punjab. Not just in queering things for the ruling SAD-BJP or the Congress, but also in giving a fillip to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aspirations of going ‘national’. “Just the khabar that Sidhu is headed our way has sent a huge wave of energy and enthusiasm through the Aam Aadmi Party cadre in Punjab,” says Chander Suta Dogra, a former journalist, who is now part of party’s core team in the state.