Navjot Singh Sidhu edges closer to joining AAP, meets Arvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu met Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at his residence in Delhi on Friday night, news agency ANI has reported.

The meeting comes after weeks of speculation over whether Sidhu would join the AAP ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab.

Sidhu, who had been a BJP MP in the Rajya Sabha, had quit both his post and the party in July. Amid speculation over his political future, he had appeared in a yellow turban, a colour now associated strongly with the AAP.

Sources had earlier told TOI that Sidhu would not be made the CM candidate as speculation at the time had suggested, but would be the AAP's star campaigner.

However, there had been some doubt at the time over whether such an arrangement would be acceptable to Sidhu. His meeting with Kejriwal on Friday night seems to address those questions.

On quitting the BJP, Sidhu had alleged that he had been asked to stay away from Punjab. He had said cryptically that he would cast his political lot with the side that was in Punjab's interests.

Sidhu's resignation, along with that of his MLA wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, had come as a blow to the BJP, which is in alliance with the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab. His exit even had the Congress hoping to pull him into its ranks, with former CM Amarinder Singh inviting him to join the Congress.

(With inputs from ANI)