Patiala,may 17:
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Thursday claimed that he did not have any role to play in the denial of ticket to Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu from Chandigarh. However, he said that Kaur had been offered ticket from Amritsar and Bhatinda, but she refused to accept it. Ticket allocation was done by the Congress in Delhi and they had chosen not to accept Kaur’s application to contest from Chandigarh, he said. Chandigarh was not under Punjab and he had no role in the selection of a candidate from the city, Singh added. Sidhu is a cabinet minister in the Punjab government. The simmering tension between the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu and the chief minister had come out in open on a few occasions in the past.The Congress has instead picked up Pawan Bansal from Chandigarh to fight the election. Singh said that had he been asked to choose the candidate, he would have also taken Bansal’s name as he was a “better choice.” Meanwhile, sharing some light on the election, he said though he is confident of Congress’ victory in Punjab, but if the party loses, he would take the responsibility and would quit. All ministers and MLAs have been made responsible for the Congress party’s performance in the state, and he shared the responsibility with them, Singh said, adding that he was ready to take the same responsibility for the state but was “confident of a sweeping victory for the party in Punjab.”“If Congress is wiped out in Punjab in these polls, what do you think I will do? Obviously, I will accept responsibility and resign,” he said.
