Sidhu forms new party - Awaaz-e-Punjab; spurns AAP, Congress

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Sept 02: Former BJP MP and Test cricketer BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu and hockey player-turned-MLA Pargat Singh have joined hands to float a new party, the Awaaz-e-Punjab, along with Ludhiana-based Independent MLAs and brothers Simarjeet Singh Bains and Balwinder Singh Bains.

Sidhu on Friday announced the formation of the ‘front’, saying it will be launched on September 9.

With this, Sidhu has spurned not only the Aam Aadmi Party, which was very keen to get him onboard, but also the Congress which had made overtures to the cricketer-turned-politician.

The party was floated after the Bain brothers, Pargat Singh and Sidhu met in Delhi on Thursday.

“Along with Pargat Singh and the Bains brothers we have formed a front. This front will work against those working against Punjab,” Sidhu said.

The move comes a fortnight after Sidhu, a former Amritsar BJP MP, met Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. While Sidhu kept everyone guessing on whether he was joining the AAP amid a studied silence from the BJP, Pargat, the Jalandhar Cantonment MLA, was placed under suspension by the Shiromani Akali Dal recently for taking on the party leadership over corruption and nepotism.

Confirming the development, Pargat shared a poster of the party showing Sidhu, the Bains brothers and himself in arms.