Pargat Singh: Sidhu aide and first to question Capt’s work style, Hockey ace dribbles his way into Cabinet

His association with Sidhu goes back to the time when both used to play for India, Sidhu for the Indian cricket team and Pargat for the Indian Hockey team.

A former captain of the Indian national hockey team, Pargat Singh, joined politics ahead of 2012 Assembly elections when he was fielded from Jalandhar Cantt by SAD. He won the 2012 battle and in 2017, he repeated his victory on a Congress ticket.

Known to be a straight talker, Pargat had highlighted huge corruption in the Congress-run municipal corporation under his own government.

He took direct dig at former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh on the functioning of his government and questioned him on issues like sacrilege, drug menace, mining mafia, farmers’ issues, and power purchase agreements signed by the previous SAD-BJP government.

As an Akali Dal MLA, he had dared to take a stand against then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of setting up of a solid waste management project in Jalandhar Cantt constituency, a pet Project of the SAD-BJP government following which he was placed under suspension.

He was offered the post of CPS in 2016, but Pargat refused as it came too late and at a time when not even a year was left for the polls.

Ahead of 2017 Assembly elections, Pargat had left SAD to join Sidhu’s new political front — Awaz-e-Punjab , and then both joined Congress.

Before joining SAD, he was posted as a Superintendent of Police (SP) in the Punjab Police.