Veteran Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday formally joined Congress in New Delhi. Sidhu was supposed to join the Congress last week but went incommunicado at the last minute. The former BJP MP is known as a star vote-catcher who is likely to help the Congress overcome a strong fight from the Akali Dal and the AAP in the Punjab assembly elections. The northern state goes to the polls on February 4 and the Congress is hoping to come back to power after a decade.

Addressing a press conference, Sidhu said, "I am born Congressman. Joining Congress is my 'ghar wapsi.'" On formally joining Congress, Navjot Singh Sidhu was welcomed by senior party leader Ajay Maken.

Sidhu quit the Rajya Sabha in July and walked out of the BJP in September after months of acrimony. He was in talks with AAP but negotiations broke down late last year. His talks with the AAP broke down after Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party refused to name a chief ministerial candidate. The AAP had offered him deputy chief minister’s post.

In the meantime, his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu, who held the Amritsar East constituency in the Punjab assembly, also resigned from the BJP and on November 28 she along with Pargat Singh joined the Congress.