Navjot Kaur Sidhu resigns from primary membership of BJP

Chandigarh: BJP MLA from Punjab Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Saturday resigned from the primary membership of the party, less than a month after her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu had also done so. Her resignation was accepted by Union minister Vijay Sampla, who is also Punjab BJP president, and state BJP secretary Vineet Joshi. Earlier in the day, she sent her one-line resignation to the party president at the party headquarters. [caption id=“attachment_2869544” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Navjot Kaur Sidhu. Twitter[/caption] “I hereby resign from the primary membership of the party,” Joshi quoted Kaur as saying in her resignation letter. He said one of her aides came to Punjab BJP headquarters here this evening and delivered the letter. However, one of Kaur’s aides, claimed that she has not resigned as an MLA. She will address a press conference in Amritsar on Sunday to give reasons of her resignation, the aide said. Kaur, who was former chief parliamentary secretary (Health), had been at loggerheads with the SAD-BJP led government in the state over the development projects in Amritsar. She had accused the government of meting out “step-motherly treatment” to her constituency (Amritsar-East) and had even observed a hunger strike in protest against alleged blockade of funds by it last year. However, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had said Kaur was “like his daughter” and maintained that he had “liberally allocated funds” for development projects in her constituency. Kaur had also announced that she will not contest polls as long as BJP remained an ally of SAD. After her husband and cricketer-turned-politician Sidhu along with former hockey captain Pargat Singh and independent MLAs Simarjeet Singh and Balwinder Bains floated “Awaaz-e-Punjab”, she had said she would join the front team if they form a political party. However, Sidhu after much speculation announced that he would not float a party to contest the upcoming Punjab Assembly election, as he did not wish to play a “spoilsport” by dividing anti-incumbency votes. He, however, said the forum was ready to “forge an alliance with AAP or Congress for the betterment of Punjab”.