Captain Amarinder Singh’s first stop on his way to the newly set-up office of the Punjab Lok Congress on Monday was a local gurudwara. The former chief minister sought divine blessings in what would clearly be an existential political battle that he will be fighting in the days to come.
Though the composition of the party’s top brass was yet not clear, Amarinder tried to show that he was a man on a mission as he attended the inauguration of the party’s new office.
The former chief minister is trying to rope in eminent citizens, farmers and disgruntled leaders from other parties. To begin with, the office affairs will be handled by his son Raninder Singh, though he denied that the latter would be contesting the upcoming elections.
From virtually operating from his palace during the Congress days, the captain would mostly work out the not-so-swanky office in Sector 9 in Chandigarh. The office is yet to set up fully and a big poster of Amarinder with a WhatsApp number for enrolment hangs outside.
It’s almost three decades later Amarinder is gearing up to contest elections on his own after having broken away from Akalis to form his own SAD (Panthic) in 1992. He failed miserably in that endeavour. But observers say this battle is different. “This will virtually be a test of his political existence. If he succeeds, he will be back with a bang, if he doesn’t, his political career is over. But at this age, he wants to send across a signal that he has some fight left in him,’’ remarked a Congress leader close to him.
A lack of organisational base for the new outfit is something that he is trying to downplay and, instead, launch an attack on the Channi government from the front. “Total chaos prevails in the Congress government. They used to tag me with Akalis or others for not properly handling the sacrilege cases or book the Akalis in STF drug report. Those who were raising the voice are in power. One needs proper evidence to take action and not just run false political narrative”, he remarked while interacting with the media at the inauguration.
Reacting to reports that over 30 MLAs from the Congress were likely to be denied tickets, he said only those would be welcomed who have the ability to win. “Many senior leaders from the Congress are waiting for the model code of conduct before walking over to us,” he said.
Asked if he expects to be the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance, he said: “All alliance partners will decide on the chief Ministerial face.”
To a question on when he will meet BJP president JP Nadda for seat-sharing talks, he said that in principle, a decision has been taken on the alliance. “Now it is only seat adjustment. For seat adjustment, we will go and I cannot tell you the numbers (of seats each party will contest),” he said.
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