'Human bomb' Navjot Sidhu will explode once he enters Congress: Sukhbir Badal

After Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Navjot Singh Sidhu would join their party on the auspicious day of Diwali, Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said the cricketer-turned politician is a human bomb and will explode once he enters the grand old party.

Badal told mediapersons that Congress' state party chief Captain Amarinder Singh is trying to downplay Bajwa by saying that he has no objection to Sidhu joining the party, adding the reality is that they both abuse each other.

"At places they abuse each other. They are not gifting anything to the people, they are giving gifts to each other. They want to harm each other and Sidhu is a human bomb and will go and explode there," Badal said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bajwa said the matter of Sidhu joining the Congress was under the high command's consideration while sarcastically adding that Sidhu may get a 'Diwali gift'.

When asked whether it meant that Sidhu would be joining the party, he said, "It could be." Replying to another query, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "If Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asks me to fight the assembly elections, I will contest. I am ready to leave the Rajya Sabha and contest polls to strengthen the party, if he says."

Responding to Bajwa's assertion, Captain Amarinder said that he has no objection to Sidhu and other Awaaz-e-Punjab leaders' joining the Congress. He said that he was actually the first person to invite Sidhu to join the Congress when the former cricketer had quit the BJP.

The Punjab Congress chief, who had earlier dubbed Sidhu as "another clown", backtraced from his earlier stand post his meeting with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi last week, thereby indicating that talks were on between Sidhu and the party high command.