Chandigarh:  Ahead of a meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the former minister’s wife on Wednesday said he was not after any post but only wanted to serve the people of the state.

Navjot Kaur Sidhu said she and her husband are not in politics for this reason. “Otherwise, he could have been a Union minister, she claimed, referring to his decision to quit the ruling BJP in 2016.

She was talking to the media a few hours ahead of a scheduled meeting between her husband and the CM, amid speculation over the cricketer-turned-politician’s return to the Punjab cabinet.

Sidhu was earlier invited by the CM for lunch but the meeting was rescheduled for tea at 4 pm because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s video conference with all chief ministers to discuss the fight against COVID-19.

The two leaders had earlier met in November, their first interaction of the kind after the strained relations between them forced Sidhu to quit the Punjab cabinet in 2019.

Navjot Kaur Sidhu said her husband was not after any post. He wanted to serve Punjab and people are with him.

Had he been interested in any post, he could have been somewhere else in the last one and half years, she said.

Answering another question, she said, We both are in not in politics for any post. Otherwise, he could have been a Union minister. But he left Modi ji, she said.

Our struggle is only for Punjab and it will always be that, she said.

The Congress central leadership has been trying to rehabilitate Sidhu who resigned as minister after he was divested of the Local Bodies portfolio in 2019.

For the past several weeks, party circles are abuzz with speculation that Sidhu could be reinducted into the state cabinet with a key portfolio.

There has also been talk of the former minister being appointing as the state Congress unit president.

The Punjab assembly polls are due early next year.

Press Trust of India