Cricketer politician Navjot Sidhu said on Tuesday his passage through Parliament comes after about 70 visits by election strategist Prashant Kishor, who is helping build the party’s campaign ahead of the parliamentary elections. 2017 in Punjab.
“Prashant Kishor met me at least 60 times asking me to participate in the Congress,” he told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
Mr. Kishor added that he is apprehensive about the party’s prospects and thinks his addition will help garner a large number of votes. “The PK said that Congress won’t get more than 30-35 seats. If you (Sidhu) come, there will be a 7-8% swing,” he said. “Then Bhai called me,” he said.
The National Assembly came to power in parliamentary elections, winning 77 out of 117 seats.
Mr. Sidhu became involved in January 2017, after weeks of negotiations with the Aam Aadmi Party. Mr. Sidhu said the head of the AAP had also sent someone to thank him and when they finally met, Arvind Kejriwal did not offer him a party ticket for both houses of parliament and just wanted him to campaign for the party.
Mr Sidhu said Rahul Gandhi was the one who put him on the Congress board, pledging allegiance to the Gandhis “as long as I breathe”.
Prashant Kishor stepped down as an advisor to the Chief of Punjab last year – weeks before Amarinder Singh stepped down as Minister in September after a tense year with part of the MLA led by Mr Sidhu.
Mr Sidhu said today Amarinder Singh was “unsafe”. “He never wanted anyone, not even a little, to stand with me. He opposed me when I went to the Congress,” he said.
Mr Sidhu, who seems unlikely to be the ‘people’s choice’ for Chief this week, said the whole question of who would become the party’s candidate for Chief would be should be redundant if the National Assembly does not win 60 seats in parliament.
“If we had 60 MLAS, we would choose CM. If we didn’t have 60 MLA, everything would change. Then it’s up to someone to form a government or an aggressive council,” he said. in the hands of God”.
