Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh criticizes the BJP's functioning, stating he is not being consulted. He rules out rejoining the Congress but expresses willingness to help Sonia Gandhi personally. He also discusses Punjab's political landscape, AAP's performance, and national security.
Amarinder Singh was ousted from the party and he later joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The development has come amid a power tussle that polarised the ruling party in the state headed for elections in just about four months.
On his condition of resolving farmers' issues, the BJP leader said Singh did not talk about ending the farmers' agitation.
Singh, 80, had floated the PLC last year after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister, but his party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls.
The incident took place right outside Parliament's Makar Dwar, the main entrance which MPs take to enter the new Parliament building, where Gandhi was standing in solidarity with suspended Congress MPs, mostly from Punjab.
Amarinder, 75, was sworn in as the state's 26th chief minister along with nine ministers, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The House has been witnessing uproar after Rahul Gandhi was disallowed to cite an article based on excerpts from an unpublished 'memoir' of former Army chief General M M Naravane (retd).
Congress leader and former chief minister Amarinder Singh was on Wednesday expelled from the Punjab assembly after being indicted by a House committee in a graft case and his seat declared vacant. A resolution to his effect was moved by ruling Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Harish Rai Dhanda and passed in the assembly amid protests by slogan-shouting Congress members who boycotted the proceedings.
There's no doubt that now Captain Singh has no choice: A succession plan has been forced on him. He can sulk, or he can fight back. But the playing field is no longer as level as it was.
Singh (80) had floated the Punjab Lok Congress last year after quitting the Congress.
8 Member of Parliaments were suspended from Lok Sabha for tearing & throwing papers at the Chair till April 2. Uproar started when Rahul Gandhi was barred from citing former Army Chief, General M M Naravane's memoir on 2020 India-China clash. Rediff.com brings you the details of these MPs who were suspended.
Amarinder Singh, who was removed as Congress Punjab unit chief, said he would have suggested a different name to replace him had he been consulted.
The 79-year-old widely respected and popular leader steered the Congress in 2017 to a landslide victory in the 117-member assembly to occupy the chief minister's post for the second time.
"Notwithstanding my personal anguish, I hope this will not cause any damage to the hard-earned peace and development in the state," Singh wrote in his letter to Gandhi
Congress' Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that Navjot Singh Sidhu would have been a tougher contestant from Amritsar than Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley whom he dismissed as a "nominal candidate".
The Congress stalwart could not have asked for a better gift on his 75th birthday.
'Because if a Dalit is made the chief minister, they ask who is taking the decisions in the Congress?'
'He was walking on the road when a car coming from Bhogpur hit him. He suffered head injuries and was taken to a private hospital where he died in the evening'
A new book reveals former Congress MP Amarinder Singh's mission to arrange a meeting between Rajiv Gandhi and Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale in the 1980s, along with other anecdotes.
Congress leaders are now in a "wait and watch" mode over the possible ripple effect of Punjab developments in faction-ridden Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the only two states other than Punjab where the party is in power on its own.
After taking charge at the state Congress headquarters, the cricketer-turned-politician said there was no difference between an ordinary worker of the party and its state unit chief.
'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'
If the BJP wants to recruit him, it needs to make the supreme sacrifice -- of rolling back the three farm laws, because without that, Amarinder Singh is unlikely to cross over.
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.
"Happy to inform that Punjab Lok Congress has received its Party Symbol -- Hockey Stick with Ball. #Bas Hun Goal Krna Baki (Making goals only left now)," the Punjab Lok Congress said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, Navjot Singh Sidhu again launched an attack on the former CM.
'Change was very much needed for the Congress to win the 2022 assembly elections.'
He said Parrikar had no right or authority to order the services chiefs to accept what is not acceptable to them, adding he had once again shown his inability to understand the services.
The two veteran politicians seem to be enjoying themselves dancing to covers of 'Aaj Kal Tere Mere Pyar Ke Charche' and 'Gulabi Aankhen Jo Teri Dekhi' both originally sung by Mohammed Rafi in the late 1960s and 70s.
Shekhawat, the BJP's poll in-charge for Punjab, said to finalise the seat sharing agreement, a joint committee will be formed comprising two leaders from each party.
'Feeling claustrophobic and humiliated by the manner in which the Congress vice-president was treating him, he started toying with the idea of floating his own party.'
He also said he even declined the post of deputy chief minister offered by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to him.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Tuesday allocated portfolios to the new ministers, keeping 14 departments with himself and giving home affairs to deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and health to other deputy O P Soni.
Amarinder Singh failed spectacularly in these assembly elections -- his new party failed to open its account, his ally BJP fell flat and he failed to even win his own constituency.
Any decision taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be acceptable to all, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Saturday as talk of Navjot Singh Sidhu being appointed chief of the party's state unit despite his oft-stated reservations gathered force.
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.
The BJP Friday formally announced that it will contest the upcoming assembly elections in Punjab in alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress.
Asking that if all these leaders and actors accompanying the Pakistani journalists are Inter-Services Intelligence's contacts, Singh asserted that he would have invited her again had there been no visa restrictions between India and Pakistan.
Ahead of Amarinder Singh's resignation as Punjab chief minister on Saturday, over 50 Congress legislators from Punjab had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking his replacement, highly placed party sources said.
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