Chandigarh: Former Congress Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu, who is at the centre of a raging rebellion in the ruling Punjab Congress, on Sunday said that he is "not a showpiece" that can be used to win elections. Speaking to the media, the cricketer-turned-politician asserted that he has no vested interest and is as much a traditional Congressman as any of his detractors within the party.
"I have no vested interest as such. Neither do I have any greed for the post of Deputy Chief Minister. I am fighting for issues, not for any position," Sidhu said, further slamming the system for giving jobs to kin of MLAs.
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Speaking to a select group of journalists at his residence in Patiala, Sidhu said that Prashant Kishore had met him around 60 times to convince him to join the Congress in 2017. He said that he joined the party with an agenda: The agenda of "Pro-Punjab and Pro-people."
"I have served in different capacities in my political career spanning 17 years... I have been a Lok Sabha MP thrice, went to the Rajya Sabha, became an MLA and then a minister in the state cabinet...I had joined the Congress party with an agenda as you can not fulfil it by staying out of the system. I followed my agenda right from the very first cabinet meeting," he said.
Attacking the state government, the former state minister also said he gave a number of proposals to Chief Minister Capt Amrinder Singh for the welfare of the state but the system rejected them all. "I gave a proposal to change the liquor policy to generate more money for the state exchequer and utilise that money in providing jobs to the people. I gave a proposal to curtail the transport mafia indulged in the illegal transportation of the sand...I suggested implementing the pay commission immediately... But not a single proposal was accepted by the system," he alleged.
Sidhu has been critical of Capt Amrinder after the Punjab and Haryana High Court last month quashed a probe into the Kotkapura firing case, which took place during a protest against the desecration of a religious text in Faridpur district. Earlier, too, he had slammed the chief minister over the alleged delay in providing justice in the case.
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