The Congress on Monday suspended Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the wife of former cricketer and party leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, two days after she claimed that a person who gives “a suitcase of Rs 500 crore” becomes the chief minister.

The party’s Punjab unit stated that she had been suspended from the primary membership “with immediate effect”.

The former Punjab Congress chief’s wife made the remark on Saturday while speaking to reporters in Chandigarh after meeting Governor Gulab Chand Kataria.

She said that her husband was “strongly attached” to the Congress, adding that the cricketer-turned-politician would return to active politics if the party announces him as the chief ministerial face.

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Punjab is expected to head for Assembly elections in 2027.

“But with so much infighting, I do not feel that they will let Navjot Sidhu be promoted as there are already five CMs faces, and they are hell bent on defeating the Congress,” the former MLA said. “If they [high command] understand this, then it is a different matter.”

She added: “We always speak for Punjab, but we do not have Rs 500 crore to secure the chief ministerial chair.”

When asked whether somebody had demanded money from them, she said that nobody had done so but added that the “one who gives a suitcase of Rs 500 crore, he becomes the CM”.

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Her comments had triggered backlash from the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Navjot Singh Sidhu began his political career in 2004 with the BJP but resigned from the party in 2016. He joined the Congress a year later.

In 2022, he resigned as the Punjab Congress chief after the party lost the Assembly polls to AAP. He had lost the Amritsar East seat to AAP’s Jeevan Jyot Kaur.

After her comments triggered a political row, Navjot Kaur Sidhu on Sunday said she was “shocked to see the twist given to a straight comment saying that our Congress party has never demanded anything from us”.

She added: “On being asked about Navjot [Singh Sindhu] becoming a CM face from any other party, I stated that we have no money to offer for a CM post. Listen carefully.”