Former MLA Navjot Kaur Sidhu has launched a sharp attack on Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi shortly after her exit from the Indian National Congress, accusing him of being disconnected from ground realities and alleging corruption within the party’s Punjab unit.
Speaking to the media in Coimbatore, Sidhu claimed that Gandhi has not worked at the grassroots level and does not understand the situation on the ground in Punjab. “I think it’s very important to be grounded. What’s happening at Ground Zero is very important. You can’t be living in a dream world,” she said, predicting that the Congress would face defeat in the upcoming state Assembly elections next year.
Sidhu, who is the wife of former cricketer and ex-Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, drew a comparison between Gandhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “You can point a finger at PM Modi. Try to touch him. Does he have a penny? Does he have a file against him? Try touching him personally. There is nothing against him. Rahul Gandhi talks well. He talks sense. But what he does and what he says are very different,” she said.
She further alleged that she had tried for eight months to secure an appointment with Gandhi to inform him about what she described as “injustice” by the Punjab Congress leadership. “I just asked you for a sitting to tell you that your party is being destroyed in Punjab. They have already sold the tickets. If you are not aware of what’s happening beneath you, then I am sorry, you don’t deserve that chair. You are responsible for what you are doing,” she said.
Sidhu also claimed that promises made to her and her family were not fulfilled. “We left everything for Punjab, and you promised us a deputy chief minister post with seven departments and me as an MP, but you gave us nothing. Why are you talking against corruption when your own people are corrupt? And you’re liking those corrupt people around you. The people surrounding you are totally corrupt. You have no time for the honest people who want to come and tell you that this is going wrong, you are not going to win Punjab,” she alleged.
Her remarks come days after Congress general secretary in charge of Punjab Bhupesh Baghel announced that she had been expelled from the party, following her public declaration that she was quitting. The 62-year-old leader was earlier with the Bharatiya Janata Party and served as an MLA from 2012 to 2016 before joining the Congress.
