Punjab polls: Imran Khan requested me to induct 'old friend' Sidhu in Cabinet, claims Amarinder

After former chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday revealed that he got a request from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan for inducting Navjot Singh Sidhu into his cabinet, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa accused Sidhu of shaking hands with the enemy to get power and demanded an answer from Congress on the matter.

Addressing a joint press conference with his Punjab alliance partners here, Amarinder said, "Pakistan PM sent a request saying if you can take Sidhu into your cabinet I will be grateful, he is an old friend of mine. You can remove him if does not work."

The statement has taken the political heat ahead of the Assembly polls in five states including Punjab to another level with the BJP hitting out at the Congress party and demanding the answer on the same.

BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa released a self-made video and said, "It is sensational news. Congress should answer it. How the morale of the soldiers might have come down when they would have got the news that Sidhu shook hands with his enemy to get power and did lobbying with the Prime Minister of an enemy nation."

Sirsa further alleged that this mindset is "against the country and Army" and demanded from the Congress party to act firmly against Sidhu.

"It is a mindset against the country. This thought is against the Army. Congress must respond to this. If Congress believes that Pakistan is our enemy, then they should act firmly against Sidhu," he said.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that Amarinder also said that Sidhu did not work for months when he was in the cabinet.

"Amarinder Singh also said that when Sidhu was the minister in his cabinet, he did not see the files for months and he had warned him even then. Then he said that there was a request from Pakistan," Puri said.

However, Congress leader KTS Tulsi termed the Captain's statement a "poor joke" and said that there was no question of Sidhu becoming a minister in the cabinet of Amarinder Singh.

"It seems it is a poor joke. There is no question of Navjot Sidhu becoming a minister in the cabinet of Amarinder. Both are impossibilities," he said.

Amarinder Singh, who has floated Punjab Lok Congress after resigning as Chief Minister in September last year, had said the Pakistan Prime Minister in his request conveyed through a person "known to them" termed Sidhu as an "old friend" and said he could be removed if he does not work. (ANI)