Blaming people within the Congress for causing unease between Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu, the cricketer-turned-politician's wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Tuesday said her husband never wanted to be in the spotlight.
Sidhu, who resigned as state minister earlier this year, will continue to work as an MLA, Navjot Kaur told reporters, breaking her silence on the much discussed dispute between her husband and the chief minister..
The former MLA said they did not hold any grudges and emphasised that her husband would be working for the welfare of his constituency Amritsar East.
The couple has maintained silence ever since the portfolio reshuffle in June.
They (Sidhu and Amarinder Singh) enjoyed good relations. Nothing was going wrong in their relationship nor was anything going to go wrong. But some people could not tolerate that twoforces could work together strongly," she said, adding that some people started spreading mischief.
Asked who these people were, Navjot Kaur said they are within the Congress and did not want different groups of leaders to be formed.
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But in our entire political life, we never formed any group. Navjot Sidhu never formed any group, she said, adding that her husband never wanted the spotlight.
Everybody does his own work and he was also doing the same thing. One person was doing some good work and he should have been allowed to do so, she said.
We do not have any grudge. He (Sidhu) will continue to work as MLA, she said, adding that he had been holding meetings of councillors of his area.
Navjot Kaur sidestepped a question on why her husband did not campaign in the bypolls in Punjab, saying only he could give an answer.
Asked why Sidhu was evading the media, she said he could not bring any development project since he left ministry and therefore had nothing to share with the media.
In July, the chief minister accepted Sidhu's resignation.
The 55-year-old Sidhu was divested of his portfolios Local Government and Tourism and Cultural Affairs Departments and allotted the Power and New and Renewable Energy portfolios in the cabinet reshuffle on June 6.
On July 14, Sidhu went on Twitter to make public his June 10 resignation letter from the state cabinet. It was addressed to then Congress president Rahul Gandhi and sent just four days after his portfolio was changed.