Amarinder Singh on Monday held the Gandhis totally responsible for the rout of the Congress in the assembly polls, claiming that the party was "comfortably placed" in Punjab before he was unseated as chief minister.
"Sidhu could not manage a thing. I know him very well. Don't think that he is some sort of magic word for Punjab. He is going to be a disaster," he said.
'People in Punjab put their opinion very strongly there and it looks like they will fight. But, there is nothing like that, and they find solutions to their problems'
Revenge he will exact from a party he had led with great aplomb until the Gandhi siblings stepped in and, in order to show who was the boss, flung him aside, observes Virendra Kapoor.
Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that 78 party legislators had sought Singh's ouster in a letter to the central leadership and it was not party president Sonia Gandhi who made him quit.
'Let the Congress high command decide who will replace Captain Amarinder because they are far wiser than I am.'
'The values for which he stood for are still a benchmark. He was a prominent leader of the Ram temple movement and did not hesitate to quit office, so that a grand temple for Lord Ram may be built in Ayodhya.'
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that some Congress leaders pressured individuals to donate funds to the Young Indian and Associated Journals Limited (AJL) on instructions from senior party functionaries. The ED's chargesheet in the National Herald case claims that these individuals made payments to the company "under the influence" from senior leaders who promised them "certain favours" in party politics. The chargesheet, filed on April 9 before a local court, names Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as accused, along with five others, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency alleges that these donations were not made voluntarily but in expectation of political benefits. The ED also found that YI and AJL received funds from various entities through "quid pro quo" arrangements, where individuals were asked to make payments for advertisements in the National Herald in exchange for past favours from Congress leaders.
The BJP's vote share in Punjab has been declining -- 8.21 per cent in 2007 to 7.13 per cent in 2012, and finally to 5.4 per cent in 2017, when it won just three of 23 seats the party contested. So doing an election deal with Amarinder and a political formation he might float in the future is not inconceivable.
The chief minister pointed out that prompt action had been taken by the Punjab Police and the accused had been caught without delay, unlike in the Hathras incident. "That was why Rahul Gandhi had to rush to Hathras, to secure justice for the victim's family, and did not need to visit Hoshiarpur," he said.
Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has said a probe would be carried out to ascertain whether Aroosa Alam, a Pakistani journalist who has been visiting former chief minister Amarinder Singh for several years, has links with the ISI.
'The day when Ajnala incident took place, Bhagwant Mann was sitting in Mumbai with Arvind Kejriwal'
Amarinder Singh described the neighbouring nation's action 'knee-jerk and uncalled for'.
The Shiromani Akali Dal-Sanyukt will contest on 17 seats.
Sidhu backed his wife saying 'she would never lie', while the CM said she refused to contest from Amritsar.
Seven Congress legislators and three Aam Aadmi Party MLAs who recently switched over to the ruling party also said Navjot Singh Sidhu was a celebrity and was no doubt an asset to the party but condemning and criticising his own party and government in public has only created a "rift in the cadres and weakened it".
The former chief minister and others were booked by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on March 24 for alleged corruption and cheating in connection with the scam. Punjab Vigilance Bureau officials had interrogated Amarinder Singh, his son and son-in-law, Jagjit Singh and others on a number of times in connection with the case.
The Punjab CM's reaction has come after Khattar alleged on Saturday alleged that despite wanting to talk to him over the issue, he did not respond even when telephone calls to his office were made for three days.
Singh, who also served as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, joined the SAD on Saturday evening in the presence of party president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal.
The Congress picked Charanjit Singh Channi as the next chief minister of Punjab, making him the first Dailt to hold the post in the state, a day after Amarinder Singh resigned following a bitter power tussle in the party.
When electoral alliances are cooked and tested in the blender of political endurance, all in prep for April-May 2024.
Congress on Friday said it is "seriously considering" Captain Amarinder Singh as its candidate for the Amritsar parliamentary seat from where senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley is contesting his maiden election.
Amarinder would hold the portfolios of General Administration, Personnel, Home Affairs and Justice, Vigilance and other departments not assigned to any other minister.
SYL has been a contentious issue between the two states with the Punjab portion of the canal still incomplete.
Talking to reporters Khatkar Kalan, he also suggested that Pakistan's spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence will use farmers' unrest over the new farm laws and will try to foment trouble in the border state of Punjab.
Sidhu asserted that he will continue to appear on The Kapil Sharma Show.
While it made sense for Capt Amarinder Singh to support the Gandhis since none of the 23 'rebels' had any mass base, the truce was important for his ambition to lead the party in the February 2022 state elections. Archis Mohan reports.
Terming the attack horrendous and barbaric, the CM said soldiers at the front should be "clearly told that if they kill one of ours, you kill three of theirs".
Asserting that he is neither retired nor tired, Singh says the urge to make Punjab and the country a better place keeps him going at this age.
The widening differences between Punjab Congress leaders -- Captain Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu intensified with their wives joining them in the conflict.
Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, raising speculation over his future plans ahead of the assembly polls in the state.
Shah asserted that the BJP will once again form the government in Uttar Pradesh with a comfortable majority.
"Reports of @sherryontop (Sidhu) seeking time to meet @capt_amarinder are totally false. No time has been sought whatsoever. No change in stance... CM won't meet #NavjotSinghSidhu till he publicly apologises for his personally derogatory social media attacks against him," Thukral tweeted.
Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence is quite active in fomenting trouble in Punjab and the grenade attack in Amritsar was a pure act of terrorism, Singh said.
The wife of an army Colonel, who has accused 12 Punjab police personnel of assaulting him and his son over a parking dispute, has started a sit-in protest along with ex-servicemen outside the Patiala Deputy Commissioner's office to press for a CBI probe. The family is demanding a CBI probe and the transfer of Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police Nanak Singh, accusing him of failing to take action on their multiple requests to file an FIR. Despite Patiala Deputy Commissioner (DC) Preeti Yadav assuring them of a fair and transparent probe, the family refused to lift the 'dharna' and said it would continue until their demands were met.
Besides issuing a notice to its own administrative wing, the high court also sent a notice of motion in this regard to the State of Punjab and Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, under whose supervision the recent assembly elections were held.
Singh and Punjab Governor V P S Badnore led hundreds of people from all walks of life who took out a candle march to pay homage to the martyrs.
Several newly elected MLAs including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Manpreet Singh Badal, Brahm Mohindra, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit Singh, Pargat Singh, Razia Sultana, O P Soni are in the race for becoming ministers, party sources said.
A Ludhiana court on Thursday stayed the arrest of former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, his son and son-in-law till January 22 in the multi-crore Ludhiana City Centre scandal that rocked the state ahead of the last assembly elections.
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