Navjot Kaur Sidhu says crores needed to become CM in Congress, husband will return to active politics only if made CM face in Punjab

“But with so much infighting, I do not feel that they will let Navjot Sidhu be promoted as there are already five CMs faces, and they are hell bent on defeating the Congress. If they (high command) understand this, then it is a different matter,” she said.

Asked if the BJP gives him this responsibility, then whether Sidhu will rejoin the BJP, she said, “I cannot comment on his behalf.” When asked whether Sidhu will return to active politics if the Congress announces him as chief ministerial face, she said he will return. “But otherwise, he is earning good money and he is happy,” she added.

“We always speak for Punjab, but we do not have Rs 500 crore to secure the chief ministerial chair,” she said. When asked if anybody demanded money from them, she said that nobody demanded money from them, but the “one who gives a suitcase of Rs 500 crore, he becomes the CM”.

Reacting to her statement, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said, “My sister Navjot Kaur Sidhu has spoken the truth in her statement. What she said clearly shows that the Congress is the most corrupt party in the country. In a party where, even to become a candidate, forget winning, one must allegedly pay Rs 500 crore, you can imagine the state of that party. In Punjab, five people are roaming around claiming to be the chief minister. This shows how divided and weak the party is. With so many ‘chief ministers’ walking around, the Congress has suffered immense damage. The party is finished.”

Randhawa questions Sidhu family’s objectives

Senior Congress leader and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said it seems the Sidhu family had joined the Congress for some mission, and they now believe that their mission is complete.

In a statement, Randhawa said the people of Punjab could not understand the Sidhu family’s actions. “Out of trust, we handed the reins of Punjab to them just because he is the son of a Congress leader. Will they tell us: when they took the Punjab Congress presidency, a position equivalent to the chief minister’s stature, whose suitcase did they hand over, and for how much?” he asked.

He added that a close look at the “past performance” of the Sidhus makes it clear that the man was only speaking a script prepared by the opposition, a script that caused massive damage to the Congress.

“I believe if someone goes back and reads this family’s old interviews and newspaper statements, it will be crystal clear whether they came to save the Congress or to completely destroy it. It would have been better if he had made such statements while sitting on another branch (i.e., after joining another party), people could have enjoyed the drama even more. But now, while leaving, he is stabbing the party in the back,” he said.

Randhawa said before Navjot Sidhu himself “returns home” (to the BJP), the Congress high command should happily bid him farewell and show him the door.

BJP alleges moral collapse of Congress

State BJP president Sunil Jakhar also reacted to Navjot Kaur’s statement and said the Congress had five or six criteria for being appointed CM and Sidhu fulfilled many of them.

“People like me were ruled out at the preliminary stage itself. But what I learnt from the horse’s mouth or the son of the horse was that Rs 350 crore had been paid to secure the CMs chair,” he said, without naming anyone.

BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh Sunday said Navjot Kaur Sidhu exposed the politics of money bags in the Congress by publicly stating that the chief minister’s chair in Punjab costs Rs 500 crore, which her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu cannot pay.

Chugh said that when the wife of a senior Congress leader herself admits that the CM position can be purchased through financial deals, it demonstrates a complete moral collapse in the Congress led by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. He said this shows that the party’s internal functioning has reduced Punjab’s politics to a money-driven auction rather than a democratic leadership process.

Chugh said Navjot Kaur’s statement that five Congress leaders were lobbying for the CM post in Punjab also reveals deep-rooted infighting that has paralysed the party from within. He said that instead of addressing the problems of Punjab, the Congress leadership is busy bargaining and plotting for power, and such behaviour only reflects its desperation for control at any cost.

Navjot Singh Sidhu resigned as Punjab Congress chief after the 2022 Assembly elections, where he lost the Amritsar East seat to the AAP’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur.

This statement has fuelled debates on the Congress’s Punjab revival, with many viewing it as a subtle ultimatum to the party leadership. Navjot Kaur, a former MLA from Amritsar East (2012–2017) and a doctor by profession, has long been a vocal figure in Punjab politics alongside her husband.