Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh quits Cong, forms Punjab Lok Congress party Chandigarh.
Former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday resigned from the Congress and formed a new party called ‘Punjab Lok Congress’ ahead of State Assembly elections.
Captain Amarinder sent a seven-page resignation letter to party president Sonia Gandhi today. In a tweet, Capt Amarinder stated, “I have today sent my resignation to Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi ji, listing my reasons for the resignation. ‘Punjab Lok Congress’ is the name of the new party. The registration is pending approval with the Election Commission of India. The party symbol will be approved later.”
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh gave in his resignation to the Congress today, bulldozing a series of questions and accusations against the party and its individual leaders — including party chief Sonia Gandhi, her son, and daughter.
Uploading the seven-page bitter letter on Twitter detailing the events that led to his leaving and the crisis in the Congress, his removal, and the prospective alliance with the BJP, the 79-year-old declared that his new party will be called the “Punjab Lok Congress”.
Mr Singh had stepped down from the top post in Punjab in September after a year-long sharp feud with Navjot Singh Sidhu and a section of party MLAs. The party, he had said, had humiliated him.
His letter today was a no-holds-barred recount of his treatment by the party and the Gandhis.
In the letter, the former Chief Minister associated with the Congress for nearly four decades said Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, instead of reining in Navjot Sidhu — “an unstable individual” and “an acolyte of the Pakistani deep state” – had patronized him.
Mrs Gandhi, he said, had “turned a blind eye” to the “shenanigans of this gentleman who was aided and abetted by the General Secretary In-charge Harish Rawat, perhaps the most dubious individual I had the occasion to make acquaintance off (sic)”.
Quoting the legislature Party meeting called on Twitter that finally led to his exit, he said he understood the “intention was to belittle and humiliate” him. The next morning, Mrs Gandhi called him and asked for his resignation from the top post, which he did “without batting an eyelid”, he wrote.
“You probably thought that if this third world emergency imposition kind of circus that happened in June 1975 was not enacted, I would have whisked the MLAs to some resort… Despite knowing me for the better part of my 52 years in Public life and that too at a deeply personal level you never understood me or my character. You thought I was getting on in years and should be put to pasture,” his letter read.
Entreating Rajiv Gandhi, he wrote that he has felt “deeply hurt by your conduct and that of your children who l 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. Having been put through this exercise, during past few months, I do hope that no other senior Congressperson is subjected to the ignominy that I was put through”.
Striking out at the party’s stance about his decision to align with the BJP, Mr Singh questioned a series of party appointments and decisions – including its alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
“When you chose to appoint a person who had been with the BJP for 14 years as PPC President, I thought to myself where has the Congress come to. However, his appointment was only a continuum given that Nana Patole from the BJP and Revnath Reddy from the RSS had earlier been appointed as Presidents of Maharashtra and Telangana respectively. A party that today hurls accusations at me for taking up the farmers’ cause with the NDA/BJP Government at the Centre did not think twice before getting into bed with the Shiv Sena when it suited it. Who is Communal and who is, therefore, Secular it is for the people to judge,” Amarinder Singh wrote.
However, Harish Rawat earlier said, “Congress has always kept Captain Amarinder Singh and his family in high esteem. Even after suffering a crushing defeat from Patiala Constituency in 1998, he was inducted into the Congress party and immediately appointed by Sonia Gandhi as the President of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on three occasions from 1999 to 2002, 2010 to 2013, and 2015 to 2017. Twice, the Congress party made him the Chief Minister of Punjab from 2002 to 2007 and 2017 to 2021. As the Chief Minister, he was given a completely free hand.”
Rawat said despite continuous reminders from his colleagues and the leadership, “unfortunately, Amarinder failed to keep his promises on important issues like Bargadi, drugs, electricity, etc. There was a general perception throughout the state that Captain and the Badals are helping each other, and they have a secret understanding. I was always politely suggesting he initiate action on our election promises. At least five times I discussed these issues with Captain sahib but with no result.”
Rawat further stated, “The whole Bargadi issue was mishandled by trusted lieutenants of Amarinder Singh. In cabinet meetings, there were heated discussions on this issue and later, many prominent ministers came to Delhi with a complaint that now with Amarinder Singh at the helm of affairs, Congress cannot win the elections.”
To try to solve the issue, the Congress high command formed a three-member panel under the chairmanship of veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge. This panel heard more than 150 prominent leaders, including MLAs, MPs, ex-MLAs, ex-MPs, PCC president, ex-PCC presidents, Youth Congress, NSUI, Mahila Congress, and Sewa Dal leaders, he said.
After prolonged discussions, the former Chief Minister agreed to implement decisions on 18 points (which included the Bargadi desecration issue, drugs menace, power tariff) suggested by the panel to the Congress president. In this meeting, an overwhelming majority of MLAs clearly expressed their dissatisfaction with the Captain Amarinder Singh administration’s style of functioning, and quite a good number suggested his immediate replacement, Rawat added.
He went on to say that Captain Amarinder did not implement even one out of the 18 points. The panel then called him again and a time-bound course of implementation was discussed and mutually agreed upon. But after returning to Chandigarh, Amarinder forgot his promises to the panel and to the Congress President once again.
“Born out of his stubbornness, he was of the belief that he does not need any advice from anyone, including his own MLAs and ministers and party leadership. However, again I went to Captain Amarinder Singh at his house and had a lengthy discussion with him along with his officials. We came down to five points which he promised to implement within the next 10 days. After this, 20 days passed, and we didn’t hear anything from him. The Congress MLAs and ministers were getting restless,” Rawat said.
The senior Congress leader said the rebellion happened after all this. “…in a written letter to the party leadership, 43 MLAs told the party that despite repeated efforts we could not get anything done by Captain Amarinder Singh, so please call a CLP (Congress Legislative Party) meeting otherwise we are going to call a separate meeting. Then I tried to contact Amarinder Singh ji thrice, but I could not get him on telephone. Then through one of his well-wishers, I sent him a message that there is a demand for a CLP meeting, and we have no option but to call the CLP meeting. Despite getting the message, Captain Amarinder Singh didn’t bother to telephone me,” he said.
“Then I suggested to the party high command that if we delay the matter then many MLAs may form a separate group or may create some more problem for the party. It was then decided to call a CLP meeting. I then officially informed Captain Amarinder Singh that the party has called a CLP meeting and requested him to attend the meeting,” Rawat explained. Amarinder had said that the party had not officially informed him about the CLP meeting.
In response, the former chief minister instead called a separate meeting at his residence on the day of the CLP meeting. Before this, the Congress chief also spoke to Amarinder about the complaints signed by 43 MLAs and the CLP meeting. Amarinder offered to resign and there was no other option than to choose a new CLP leader, Rawat said.
Before choosing a new CLP leader, the 78 MLAs present (out of the total 80) passed a unanimous resolution praising Captain Amarinder Singh and thanking him for his leadership of the state Congress as well as the CLP. Thus Rawat said that how does this sequence of events suggest that anybody intended to humiliate him, stressing that no one ever humiliated him.
“In the democratic party, all democratic procedures were followed and the party chose a chief minister who comes from a humble background. It was expected from Captain Amarinder Singh to bless him and for that purpose, I tried thrice to meet him, even I used the services of some of our common friends also for meeting him at his residence, but he denied to meet me. The newly appointed chief minister also asked for his blessing, and he said that he will call him for lunch or tea, but nothing has happened,” said Rawat, pointing out that the chief minister tried to contact him several times but in vain.
“After meeting Amit Shah and the BJP’s contact man, the theory of humiliation is being circulated to gain the sympathy of the people. The humiliation-based sympathy politics may help a person, but it will not help Punjab. Captain Amarinder was controlling both the government and the party from his farmhouse (home). No one asks him a question regarding his absence from the secretariat, visits in the districts,” said the statement.
“For stability, Congress has a massive majority in the assembly and with Charanjit Singh Channi as the Chief Minister, the Congress Government is strong in its resolve and capable of fulfilling the hopes and aspirations of the people of Punjab. We assure the people of Punjab that governance has started to change for the better, and the best will be seen in the coming few weeks,” he said.
Thus, the leaving of Captain Amarinder Singh from Congress and asking him to resign have to be looked at from both sides and well analyzed.
