Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu is also a television personality and retired international cricketer. Presently, Sidhu is the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Formerly, he was the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs in the state government of State of Punjab.

As a professional cricketer, Sidhu had a career spanning over 19 years after his first-class debut in 1981–82. After losing his place in the national team following his international debut in 1983–84, he returned to score four half-centuries in the 1987 World Cup.

Also read: How many seats required to form government in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa, Uttarakhand?

Playing mostly as a top-order batter, Sidhu went on to play in 51 Tests and 136 One-Day-Internationals for his country. He came to be known for his six-hitting ability and earned the sobriquet “Sixer Sidhu”.

After retirement, he turned to commentary and television, most notably as a judge of comedy shows, and as a permanent guest in Comedy Nights with Kapil (2013–2015) and later The Kapil Sharma Show (2016–2019).

Also read: Punjab: As exit polls predict AAP win, Bhagwant Mann gets ready to accept mandate

Sidhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and contested the general election from Amritsar that year. He won the election and held the seat till 2014 winning also the next election.

He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab before he resigned from the position the same year and quit the party. In 2017, he joined the Indian National Congress and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Amritsar East.

Also read: Punjab sees slump in voter turnout for Assembly polls, numbers hark back to 2002

Punjab voted in a single phase on February 20 to decide the fate of 1,304 candidates. Votes will be counted for all five on March 10.