Captain's Capital Visit Keeps Congress on Tenterhooks as Ex-CM Calls on NSA Doval Day After Meeting Amit Shah

Keeping the Congress on the edge, former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh met National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval in the Capital on Thursday, a day after he called on Home Minister Amit Shah amid buzz of his jumping ship to the BJP.

Singh had earlier said he was exploring his options after being forced to quit as Punjab chief minister on September 18, just four months before state polls.

On landing in Delhi on Tuesday, he denied any plan to meet with BJP leaders, claiming he only wanted to vacate the Kapurthala House for new Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.

However, he met Shah on Wednesday and said he had discussed the farm laws which have triggered an 11-month-long farmers’ protest and ways to resolve the deadlock. He said he had urged Amit Shah to guarantee minimum support price to farmers and support Punjab in crop diversification.

“Since Captain was in Delhi, he called on the home minister,” said a close aide of the former chief minister. Captain was seen exiting Shah’s home with a ‘file’ under his arm; he left from the second gate, not the one he entered from.

For the BJP, getting Singh to jump ship will be a coup as the party does not have a CM face in Punjab and its long-time ally Akali Dal broke off ties over the farmer protests.

Sources in the saffron party told CNN-News18 that the party is ‘keen to work with the Captain, but a resolution needs to be reached over the farmers’ protests’.

“We won’t withdraw the farm bills but a way out will have to be provided to the Captain that will advantage both sides,” a top party source told CNN-News18.

After resigning as Punjab chief minister, Amarinder Singh had said he felt “humiliated”. Later, he had also called Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra “inexperienced”.

He had also also threatened to pit a strong candidate against state party chief and his arch nemeis Navjot Singh Sidhu in the coming assembly polls. In no-holds-barred remarks shortly after resigning, he called Sidhu a drama master and a dangerous man, accusing him of behaving like a “Super CM” with the new chief minister, Charanjit Singh Channi, “simply nodding along.

He also claimed that Punjab is now being run by the party from Delhi, according to a press statement issued by an aide who summed up his interactions with the media.

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