Days before Punjab votes to elect a new Assembly, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) supporters are busy running an old video clip of Navjot Singh Sidhu praising Bikram Singh Majithia. The video is from 2009 when Sidhu, on a BJP ticket, had won a close contest against contest against the then Congress candidate Om Prakash Soni from Amritsar seat during the 2009 Lok Sabha election.
Soni had won four out of nine assembly segments in Amritsar but Sidhu emerged victorious in five with big leads from Majitha and Raja Sansi. After his victory, Sidhu had specially thanked Majithia, who was the then the sitting MLA from Majitha, for the latter’s contribution in his victory. Pictures of both offering sweets to each other were published and Sidhu had used all his oratory skills to express his gratitude.
Sidhu is now the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president, Soni a deputy chief minister in Congress government and Akali Dal leader Majithia, a former minister.
The bonhomie between Sidhu and Majithia was mutual. After becoming elected as an MP for the first time in 2004 from Amritsar, Sidhu had distributed funds for Majitha constituency from where Majithia started his political innings in 2005.
Sidhu had also campaigned for Majithia during the 2007 elections when the later became MLA for the first time. In the same year, Sidhu became BJP MP for the second time in a row after winning a by-election.
However, the bond became blurry and differences started mushrooming between the Akali Dal leader and Sidhu over various issues during the SAD-BJP government (2007 to 2012) rule in the state. Minor conflicts gradually turned into tussles between Sidhu and Majithia.
With the SAD-BJP again forming government in 2012, the differences between Sidhu and Majithia intensified. Both openly opposed each other on the ground and SAD workers started protesting against Sidhu family in Amritsar East.
While on one hand, Sidhu was accusing SAD of stopping funds for his constituency in 2013, on the other hand, he was facing resistance within the BJP in Amritsar.
Majithia was on the frontfoot when BJP replaced Sidhu with Arun Jaitley from Amritsar for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. While Majithia promised victory to Jaitely, three-time MP Sidhu decided to stay away from the campaign. However, the Majithia-Sidhu dispute ended in Jaitely’s defeat against Captain Amarinder Singh from Amritsar even though the BJP leader won from Majitha Assembly segment with a handsome margin.
The Sidhu couple then started advocating the BJP to snap ties with SAD and it would have happened had saffron party won the 2015 Bihar elections on its own. BJP’s loss in Bihar hurt Sidhu’s family position in the saffron party’s Punjab unit. BJP even tried to pacify Sidhu by nominating him to Rajya Sabha in 2017, however, he resigned from Parliament.
Soon after, Sidhu joined the Congress but things changed for the worse between the two former political rivals. Both used defamatory language against each other inside and outside the Punjab assembly.
Sidhu, however, managed to topple Amarinder from the CM post last year after leveling allegations on him, including protecting Majithia in a drug case.
When Charanjit Singh Channi became the CM, Sidhu again demanded action on the STF’s drug report. Even when an NDPS case was register against Majithia, Sidhu questioned the intention of his own party on the alleged delay in Majithia’s arrest.
Back to the present, Congress couldn’t even manage to put a high profile candidate against Majithia, however, this time, Majithia didn’t make any mistake and turned himself against Sidhu from Amritsar East from where the former’s family is contesting for the third time in a row. While there is no guarantee of a happy ending between the two friends-turned foes, but the March 10 results will surely turn a new chapter of Punjab politics.