Sidhu termed the move his "homecoming" and dubbed himself a "born Congressman".
Congress announced his candidature from his wife's constituency of Amritsar East.
Cricketer-turned-politician and former BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu joined Congress on Monday and blamed the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine for the drug menace in Punjab while vowing to oust the Badals from power in the coming assembly elections.
Bhag Baba Badal Bhag... this is my pledge," he said, referring to chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, as he addressed his maiden press conference at the Congress headquarters with AICC managers.
Sidhu took Congress membership after meeting party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday. Calling it his "homecoming" and dubbing himself a "born Congressman", Sidhu recalled his father's long innings as freedom fighter and legislator and also the senior Sidhu's appointment as advocate general of Punjab by the Congress government.
He blamed the Badals for the drug menace in Punjab and targeted deputy CM Sukhbir Badal with barbs such as identifying him as Oxford educated who had built a "luxury villa on the misery of the state". "You trade. You trade by killing the state. I will tell people where all you sold the state. I will expose you. I will open the tomes detailing your deeds," Sidhu said.
While sounding the battle cry against the Badals, he accused BJP of siding with its ally while "I picked the state". Having left BJP on bitter terms, he refused to comment on Prime Minister Narendra Modi but repeatedly referred to "Manthra" and "Kaikeyi" in the context of the saffron party for pushing him out of Punjab so that the state was left to the Badals.
The former Amritsar MP did not betray any discomfort in sporting Congress colours, given the backdrop of Akali criticism that he had joined the party which had carried out the genocide of Sikhs. Within hours of his press conference, Congress announced his candidature from his wife's constituency of Amritsar East. Sidhu refused to comment on who would be the party CM by saying the question was premature.
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