Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his newly formed party Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) is slated to merge with the BJP on Monday, news agency PTI reported citing a spokesperson of the former Congress leader’s party. The decision comes after weeks-long deliberation between the PLC founder and the BJP top brass.
Singh’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on September 12 is being seen as the BJP’s final move to get Singh and his newly-floated party on board. According to reports, Singh’s wife Praneet Kaur, who is an MP from Patiala and no longer associated with the Congress, might soon resign from her post. Singh is likely to join the party on Monday in the presence of BJP national President JP Nadda and other senior party leaders.
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Singh left Congress last year, few months ahead of the Punjab assembly elections after he fell out with then Punjab Congress president Navjyot Singh Sidhu. Singh’s infighting with Sidhu reached a pinnacle when the latter had summoned a legislative party meeting on September 18, 2021, keeping the then Punjab CM Singh in the dark.
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Amid rumours that Singh might soon be replaced, the former Punjab CM resigned from his post on the same day. In a damning 7-page resignation letter addressed to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, Singh wrote that he was “deeply hurt” by the conduct of Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka, terming the CLP meeting a “midnight conspiracy” called with “the intention to belittle and humiliate this self respecting old solider.”
Soon after leaving the party, the 80-year-old Singh floated his own party and fought the Punjab elections in alliance with BJP and SAD (Dhindsa). However, the PLC scored a duck in its maiden election with Singh losing the Patiala Urban seat in the election that was swept by the Aam Aadmi Party.