Decoding Navjot Sidhu's unfinished business with the BJP

Documents show Sidhu is a business partner of Power Minister Piyush Goyal "managing celebrities"

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Sidhu’s political association with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be over but he still continues to have a business alliance with Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal. Company documents show Sidhu and Goyal entered into a business partnership on June 6, 2011, incorporating a limited liability partnership (LLP) named Shree Siddhi Riddhi Digital LLP. When Sidhu entered into this partnership with Goyal, he was almost half way through his second stint in the Lok Sabha as a BJP MP from Amritsar, a seat he vacated for Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the 2014 general elections. Goyal, meanwhile, was a Rajya Sabha MP of the BJP, representing Maharashtra at the time. 

Little is known about the company's activities except that it was involved in "celebrity management" among other things. It's registered address was at Regent Chambers at Nariman Point, Mumbai, a short drive along the queen’s necklace from Goyal’s house at Napean Sea Road.  Sidhu contributed 66 per cent of the partnership money amounting to a few thousand rupees while Goyal contributed the rest. The LLP still continues to be active but has neither filed its financial information nor other documents required under Indian laws. 

Neither Sidhu nor Goyal responded to the email queries sent to them about their partnership and Sidhu's leaving the BJP to join Congress. 

This was not Sidhu’s first foray into business while in Parliament. In 2013, two years after he entered into the partnership with Goyal, Sidhu along with his wife formed a company called Gayatri Evision Private Limited. The company was registered in Amritsar with Sidhu and his wife being equal shareholders. Sidhu’s wife had completed barely a year as a first-time member of the Punjab legislative assembly after being elected from Amritsar (East) in the 2012 state elections on a BJP ticket. 

According to the company’s filings, Gayatri Envision was involved in the business of “online marketing and online web solutions.” Till date, the company revenues continue to be zero while its expenses are negligible. There was nothing to show any business having been carried out by the company since incorporation in 2013. 

Sidhu’s business performance measures comparably with his performance as a two-time Parliamentarian. According to PRS Legislative Research data, Sidhu participated in just four debates during his first stint as a parliamentarian between 2004 and 2009. If Sidhu’s lack of enthusiasm could be attributed to his other commitments, his performance fell further in the next Lok Sabha. He participated in just three debates, while the average parliamentarian participated in 38 during the 15th Lok Sabha. His attendance fell from 45 per cent to 28 per cent during this period. 

If Sidhu and his wife both decide to contest in the Punjab assembly elections scheduled to be held on February 4, it would be interesting to see what the ex-crickter has to say about his partnership with the Union minister in his election affidavit.