NEW DELHI: Congress is mulling appointing the sulking Navjot Singh Sidhu as deputy chief minister in Punjab, an option that the party thinks can placate the volatile leader and settle things in the state unit ahead of assembly elections.
It is learnt that Sidhu as deputy CM to chief minister Amarinder Singh is a combination the party leadership is actively considering as it considers options in Punjab. That Amarinder Singh would be the automatic CM face besides being actively projected as one may ensure that the veteran does not mind the solution offered by the peace brokers.
Ever since Sidhu went out of the Amarinder Singh government, Congress has been trying to broker a compromise. The cricketer-turned-politician has a good relationship with the Gandhi siblings, Rahul and Priyanka, and this is a factor in his favour besides the fact that he is seen as an effective campaigner who can help the party at the hustings.
What seems to weigh on the mind of the Congress brass is that Sidhu, if he joins a rival, has the firepower to hurt the party even if it does not help him much personally. While he cannot join Akali Dal, Aam Aadmi Party is surely an option for him and the CM would be wary of that — evident from the fact that he has hired pollster Prashant Kishor for the election campaign well in advance by making him an advisor in the state government. Kishor was an advisor for the previous poll as well.
“Sidhu is important enough to be given something that will placate him while not upsetting the state leadership,” a source said.
Lately, Sidhu has criticised the state of Punjab finances and also slammed the state government for not crafting alternative bills to neutralise the central farm laws — statements that have widely been seen as the dissident’s message to the party that he was still unhappy.