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Captain Amarinder Singh to join BJP on Monday
An aide close to Captain Amarinder Singh, 80, said that the former Congress leader will join the BJP on Monday by merging his party, Punjab Lok Congress (PLC), with the saffron party
: Putting an end to speculations, former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will join the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday in New Delhi.
An aide close to Capt Amarinder, 80, said that the former Congress leader will join the BJP on Monday by merging his party, Punjab Lok Congress (PLC), with the saffron party.
Six former Congress leaders, including former MLAs, will be joining the BJP along with the former chief minister.
PLC spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal confirmed that the Captain would join the BJP and said he would leave for Delhi on Sunday.
Capt Amarinder had recently met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi amid reports that he is likely to get a key role in the BJP after joining it.
He had floated the PLC after parting ways with the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister by the party high command last year. Charanjit Singh Channi replaced him as chief minister in September till the February 2022 state elections.
Capt Amarinder remained chief minister of Punjab for two terms from 2002-07 and 2017-21. He quit as the Congress chief minister barely four months before completing his second tenure.
PLC got fewer than NOTA votes
Capt Amarinder could not retain his Patiala Urban seat in the assembly elections.
The PLC contested the elections in alliance with the BJP and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Akali Dal (Sanyukt) but failed to make any headway.
According to their seat-sharing arrangement, the BJP contested on 65 seats, the PLC on 37 (with five candidates preferring to contest on the BJP symbol) and the SAD (Sanyukt) on 15 seats.
On 20 seats the PLC contested, it could not even cross 1,000 votes, while on 11 seats, the party could not even cross 500 votes in the constituency.
The party got fewer votes than NOTA in the state. A total of 1,10,308 NOTA votes were polled in the assembly elections, while the PLC managed only 84,697 votes on its symbol.
Parmod Kumar, head of Centre for Development and Communication in Chandigarh, said through Capt Amarinder, the BJP aims to occupy the space left by the Congress.
“Already many Congress leaders have joined BJP. By joining Captain, a Sikh into the BJP, the saffron party wants to reflect that It is not only the party of Hindus in Punjab but enjoys support of Sikh community as well,” he said.
Finance minister Cheema takes potshot at Capt Amarinder
Taking potshot at Former CM Captain Amarinder Singh, Finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that Amarinder was hand-in-gloves with the BJP since 2017.
“He is just doing formality of merging his party with the BJP. The fact is that he was a BJP supporter since long and worked against his own party and Punjab for his own political motives,” said Cheema.
