Sidhu as deputy CM? Ridiculous, says Amarinder

New Delhi : Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday trashed as “wild speculation” reports about his party being in negotiations with cricketer-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu for a tie-up in the 2017 state elections.
“These are ridiculous and wild speculations. We are not even talking to Sidhu. No one is talking to him. There cannot be a situation where Sidhu is engaging with the top party leadership without the state president and state in-charge being in the know. We are the Congress Party. It doesn’t work like this here,” Amarinder told The Tribune, denying reports that the Congress had offered 13 seats to Awaaz-e-Punjab led by Sidhu or that Sidhu was being offered the deputy CM’s post.
Congress in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari also maintained that the Congress is not talking to Sidhu, nor had Sidhu sent any feelers to the Congress.
“What you see about Congress-Sidhu talks are all speculative reports with no basis,” Asha said.
On a tie-up with Awaaz-e-Punjab, Amarinder said no tie-up was in the works. “You talk seat-sharing with parties. Not with a group of five people among whom four cannot win their seats. What is this talk of the Congress offering the deputy chief minister’s position to Sidhu, who cannot win in Punjab? Sidhu’s wife can’t win her seat, Pargat Singh can’t win his, nor can younger Bains win his. Only the elder Bains brother may win. So who thinks the Congress will negotiate with losers? What about the Punjab Congress leaders who have served the party for years? Will we give the deputy CM’s post to an outsider when we have our own outstanding leaders? And will we trade 13 seats with a bunch of non-winners? Someone is speculating wild,” Amarinder said. He said only Pargat Singh met him in New Delhi on October 6 and wanted to discuss seat-sharing. “I told him it is discussed between parties, not people. I also said we didn’t want Sidhu but Pargat could come,” he added.There is talk in the Congress circles about former Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, an Amarinder rival, working to get Sidhu into the party. That, seniors say, is not materialising. A section of Congress leaders maintain that Bajwa is the only Congress man to have met Sidhu and no formal talks are happening.