Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh Joins BJP, Merges His Newly Launched Party
Amarinder Singh quit the Congress in November last year amid a bitter power tussle with then Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu.
Ten months following his unceremonious exit from the Congress, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh joined the BJP on Monday in New Delhi in the presence of Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Kiren Rijiju, BJP leader Sunil Jakhar and BJP Punjab chief Ashwani Sharma.
The 80-year-old veteran politician, who quit the Congress in November last year amid a bitter power tussle with then Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu, also merged his newly formed Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the BJP.
Former Congress leader and deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Ajaib Singh Bhatti also joined BJP. In all, seven former MLAs and one former MP joined the BJP along with Amarinder Singh.
Other office bearers and district presidents of the PLC will join the BJP in a separate event in Chandigarh next week
Welcoming Singh to the BJP, Tomar said "Captain Sahab" had always kept nation above all. "I am delighted to welcome him and his supporters in BJP family on behalf of millions of BJP workers," the minister said.
"We think that right thinking people of the country should be united. A sensitive state like Punjab should be handled carefully. During his tenure as CM, he never kept politics before national security," ANI quoted Union Minister Kiren Rijiju as saying.
Singh had formed the Punjab Lok Congress party last year just ahead of the Punjab assembly election. However, his party failed to win any seat in the polls, which was won by the Aam Aadmi Party. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban to AAP's greenhorn Ajit Pal Kohli by over 13,000 votes.
Singh's Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) contested the polls in alliance with the BJP and SAD (Sanyukt), an Akali Dal rebel.
The last time Singh had merged his party was in 1992 when he had broken from the Akali Dal and formed the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic). He eventually joined forces with the Congress in 1998.
Speculations of Amarinder Singh joining the BJP had grown stronger after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 12. Singh has recently returned from London following a spinal surgery. He also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week.
The two-time former chief minister is the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family. He quit the Congress after being replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi last year.
In a resignation letter sent to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, 'Captain', as he is popularly known, attacked the Gandhis, Navjot Singh Sidhu and the Punjab government.
"I actually felt deeply hurt by your conduct and that of your children who I still deeply love as much as my own children, having known their father, since we were in school together since 1954, which is for 67 years now," Singh said in the letter.
In the letter, Singh told Sonia Gandhi that despite knowing him "for the better part of his 52 years in public life" and that too at a deeply personal level "you never understood me or my character".
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