SC verdict comes as shot in arm for BJP-Akalis

Amritsar, Jan 23: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former chief minister Prakash Singh Badal today welcomed the Supreme Court's verdict, staying cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu's conviction in a 19-year-old road rage death case.

''The verdict has come as a morale booster for the SAD and its ally, the BJP, in the elections in Punjab,'' Mr Badal said while reacting to the Apex Court's decision.

''The verdict has paved the way for Sidhu to once again contest the elections from the Amritsar Parliamentary seat and he will again win'' he said.

Mr Badal and his MP son Sukbir Singh Badal spoke to Sidhu on the telephone soon after learning about the verdict and congratulated him. The duo also had a telephonic chat with BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley and expressed the desire that the BJP would field Sidhu from Amritsar.

Mr Badal indicated that Sidhu would be the star campaigner for the SAD-BJP alliance in the Punjab polls. ''Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will pay for his wrong doings during his tenure'', Mr Badal said, while predicting that the Congress would be routed in the assembly polls and face defeat in the Amritsar Parliamentary seat.

The Apex Court verdict sent a wave of jubilation in his home town Patiala and in the Holy City here. BJP activists poured out into the bazaars in the walled city here shouting ''Sidhu zindabad, Sidhu agey bado hum tumhare saath hai'' (Sidhu move ahead, we are with you).

The verdict has come as a shot in the arm for the BJP which was heavily dependent of the SAD chief Mr Badal in the election campaign.

The party, which will be contesting 23 assembly seats and the Amritsar Parliamentary polls, had been a highly demoralised force after the Punjab and Haryana High Court convicted Sidhu and his friend Rupinder Singh Sandhu to three years imprisonment on December 6 last year in the road rage case.

''Faisale se, ab Congress ki shaamat aam gaye hai'' (the verdict spells disaster for the Congress), BJP's firebrand state vice president Mrs Laxmi Kanta Chawla, who is the candidate from the prestigious Amritsar Central constituency said. The relief granted to Sidhu would rejuvinate and unite the party cadres, she said while admitting that dissidence in the party had creeped in after the High Court sentenced the former test cricketer.

Mrs Chawla said the party would not only win the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat but its prospects in the assembly seats had brightened now. '' Sidhu has the style and flair to win friends and garner votes,'' she said while referring to the former test cricketer anchoring numerous TV-shows.

A Sidhu supporter when asked to react on the Supreme Court's decision said, ''Sidhu was the man who hammered Australian spinner Shane Warne and now he is going to hammer the Congress and the chief minister of Punjab''.

Sidhu, who is now expected to spearhead the BJP's campaign in the elections, is expected to file his nomination papers tomorrow or on Thursday, after the BJP high command clears his name for the Amritsar seat, which he had vacated after his conviction by the High Court.

The state BJP was heavily dependent on Sidhu to see it through the assembly elections. In the absence of party stalwarts like the late Dr Baldev Prakash or former Governor the late Yagya Dutt Sharma, the current state BJP was left with no leader of stature and was heavily banking on the charisma of Sidhu, whose flambouyant style of oratory has won him many admirers.

After Sidhu's conviction last month, the BJP had redrawn its election strategy and had prepared a list of its star campaigners, including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Deputy PM L K Advani, Mrs Sushma Swaraj and party chief Rajnath Singh. The party had also added Gurdaspur MP and cinestar Vinod Khanna, Bollywood stars Hema Malini, Dharmendra and Dara Singh and TV star Smriti Irani to this list.

Meanwhile, at Sidhu's home town, his wife, Dr Navjot Kaur while hugging her two children thanked the almighty for the stay on her husband conviction and even offered prayers at Gurdwara Dukhniwaran Sahib. ''On the auspicious occasion of Lohri (January 13), he (Sidhu) was released from Patiala jail and now another auspicious occasion of Basant Panchami another good news has come in,'' she added as relatives and friends poured into her house to congratulate her.

UNI