After former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh met Union Minister Amit Shah, speculations of him getting inducted into the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) were rife.
Met Union Home Minister @AmitShah ji in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers agitation against #FarmLaws & urged him to resolve the crisis urgently with repeal of the laws & guarantee MSP, besides supporting Punjab in crop diversification. #NoFarmersNoFood
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) September 29, 2021
However, Singh dismissing the rumours, asserting that while he is not going to join BJP. But he has now revealed that even though he is not shifting to BJP, he will also not be staying with Congress anymore. “So far I am in the Congress but I will not remain in the Congress. I will not be treated in this manner,” Singh said in an interview with NDTV.
“I am not joining the BJP,” he confirmed further.
‘Was asked to resign’
Miffed with the treatment meted out to him by Congress high command, he said that he was humiliated by the party on three occasions.
“The way I have been treated. At 10.30 am the Congress President says you resign. I didn’t ask any questions. At 4 pm I went to the Governor and resigned,” said the former CM who has been into politics for the past 52 years.
“If you doubt me after 50 years, my credibility is at stake and if there is no trust, what is the point of me staying in the party? I have not resigned from the Congress yet, but how can one continue in a place where there is a trust deficit. I have made my stand clear. When there is no trust, one cannot continue,” he further said.
‘Sidhu is good at creating a scene’
Calling the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu ‘childish’, Captain further said, “Sidhu is good at creating a scene.”
Taking a dig at Sidhu’s part-time career as the guest of a comedy show, Singh said, “He can do what he did in Kapil Sharma’s show and get a crowd, but he is not a serious guy. He can only do theatrics.”
Captain Amarinder Singh reiterated his opinion about Sidhu and called him a ‘loner’. “Sidhu is an immature person. I have said this repeatedly that he is not a stable man. He is not a team player. He is a loner. How will he handle the Punjab Congress as its chief? For that you need to be a team player, which Sidhu is not,” said the former Punjab CM.
‘Congress is going downhill’
When asked about the upcoming state assembly elections in Punjab, Amarinder Singh said that the party is on a downward slope. “In the current scenario, we see in a recent survey done by the Congress between July and September that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is on the rise and the Congress is on a decline. Congress has seen a 20% decline according to that survey,” revealed the former CM.
He also claimed that the elections in Punjab this time around will be very different from the previous ones considering the emergence of newer fronts and parties.
Reportedly, despite being in the national capital, the former CM has not sought any meeting with Congress acting president Sonia Gandhi. However, he did meet National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at his residence on Thursday.
