Sidhu, who quit his Rajya Sabha membership on July 18 and had announced floating of a “non-political” platform, Awaz-e- Punjab, sent his resignation to BJP chief Amit Shah, making clear his intention to fight Punjab Assembly polls under the banner of a new political entity.
“I hereby resign from the primary membership of BJP. Long association (with BJP), painful decision...not my wife, children and party, but Punjab alone comes first. Punjab, Punjabiat and every Punjabi must win (sic),” Sidhu said in his letter.
“Navjot Singh Sidhu has sent his resignation from the primary membership of the party to Amit Shah. The party has accepted it,” Prabhat Jha, party in-charge of Punjab Affairs, said in New Delhi.
When Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur, BJP MLA from Amritsar (East), was asked if she will join her husband if he floats a political party, she said, “Definitely, I will be part of it.” “Sidhu has to first float a (political) party. It (Awaaz- e-Punjab) is just a front, where only discussions take place. This front has intellectuals who talk about how to save Punjab,” she said.
“Of course I will (resign). I cannot join them without resigning,” she said when asked if she will resign from BJP. “I am only the MLA of my area. I am waiting for BJP to throw me out...they are misbehaving with me,” she added.
She said her husband had to formally submit his resignation to clear the air as a propaganda had started against him that he was acting as an agent to bring back the Badal government.
“I raised my voice for people. BJP workers who were humiliated at the hands of SAD and I had to do it because they were troubling them. And if they suspend me for my honesty and style of functioning, I will be thankful to them (BJP),” she said.