The former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will be floating a new political outfit, reports said.
Breaking – @capt_amarinder will form another outfit
— Naveen Kapoor (@IamNaveenKapoor) October 19, 2021
The decision to form a new political party came weeks after he tendered his resignation as Punjab CM. Amarinder Singh had resigned from the post of chief minister on September 18 saying that he can’t continue with the humiliation he was facing in the party. He had taken the decision after the party had called for a meeting of the Congress legislative party in Punjab without informing the CM, who is also the leader of the legislative party.
The political drama in Punjab started with the appointment of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the president of the Punjab Congress in July despite opposition from Amarinder Singh. The drama reached a crescendo when Singh refused to take the humiliation lying down and decided to call it quits. 12 days later, on September 30, Captain announced that he is quitting the Congress party as well.
In an interview with Shekhar Gupta at ThePrint, Amarinder Singh said that he would look to ally with the BJP and breakaway factions of the Shiromani Akali Dal. On being questioned, he said that he does not believe the BJP is a communal anti-Muslim party. Whether he will partner with the BJP depends on the resolution of the farmer protests, which he hinted could be headed towards a resolution soon.
On the murder of the Dalit Sikh man at the farmer protest site, Singh said, “I don’t believe that he was doing be-adbi or sacrilege because there were too many people. The person who did it (killed him) was in a frame of mind he could not control. He could have been intoxicated. Nihangs are known to take ‘sukha’ (a form of intoxication).”
After Captain’s exit from Congress, speculations were rife of him floating a new political party
Soon after his acrimonious exit from the post of Punjab CM, speculations of Captain Amarinder Singh’s future political steps started doing the rounds. His meeting with Amit Shah also added to the rumours of him joining the BJP. However, Singh dispelled those rumours as unfounded, stating that he did not intend to join the saffron party. After Singh’s denial, media was replete with speculations that Singh will float a new political party.
News18 had quoted sources as saying that a dozen Congress leaders and MLAs are also likely to join him, the report had said. According to sources, not only legislators are on board, but also certain prominent figures who are disgruntled with the Akalis.
After he quit Congress, India Today had reported that Amarinder Singh would form a new party, whose primary focus would be on security issues for which he had likely met National Security Advisor Ajit Doval at his residence in New Delhi on September 30.
