News Analysis India

Tag: Punjab Lok Congress

  • Amarinder Singh set to join BJP; his son, daughter to follow suit

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former chief minister and Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh is likely to join the BJP here on Monday along with his son and daughter and supporters in the presence of senior leaders of the ruling party.

    Singh (80) will also merge his newly formed Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

    Singh had floated the PLC last year after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister, but his party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban.

    The PLC contested the elections in alliance with the BJP and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).

    Singh will join the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders in Delhi on Monday, PLC spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal had said.

    Sources said the former Punjab chief minister’s son Raninder Singh and daughter Jai Inder Kaur will also join the saffron party along with him, besides some other leaders from the state.

    Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur is the Lok Sabha MP of the Congress from the Patiala seat. The BJP is seeking to strengthen its base in Punjab through this merger.

    Singh had recently returned from London following a spinal surgery, and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    After his meeting with Shah on September 12, Singh said he held a very productive discussion on various issues related to national security, rising cases of narco-terrorism in Punjab and the future roadmap for the state’s overall holistic development. The two-time former chief minister is the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family.

    NEW DELHI: Former chief minister and Punjab Lok Congress chief Amarinder Singh is likely to join the BJP here on Monday along with his son and daughter and supporters in the presence of senior leaders of the ruling party.

    Singh (80) will also merge his newly formed Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

    Singh had floated the PLC last year after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as chief minister, but his party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban.

    The PLC contested the elections in alliance with the BJP and the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).

    Singh will join the BJP in the presence of its senior leaders in Delhi on Monday, PLC spokesperson Pritpal Singh Baliawal had said.

    Sources said the former Punjab chief minister’s son Raninder Singh and daughter Jai Inder Kaur will also join the saffron party along with him, besides some other leaders from the state.

    Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur is the Lok Sabha MP of the Congress from the Patiala seat. The BJP is seeking to strengthen its base in Punjab through this merger.

    Singh had recently returned from London following a spinal surgery, and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    After his meeting with Shah on September 12, Singh said he held a very productive discussion on various issues related to national security, rising cases of narco-terrorism in Punjab and the future roadmap for the state’s overall holistic development. The two-time former chief minister is the scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family.

  • Capt Amarinder Singh all set to join BJP, merge his Punjab Lok Congress with saffron party

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Former Punjab CM Captain Amrainder Singh will formally join the BJP on his return from London where he is convalescing after a lower back surgery last week. He is likely to be back in India late next week when the process of his induction would begin.

    Amrinder Singh had formed a new political party – Punjab Lok Congress – after he quit the Congress party following his removal from the post of CM late last year. Sources said that the Congress stalwart from Punjab would merge his new party into the BJP.

    After Amrinder’s exit last year, senior Congress leaders close to him have quit the party and joined the BJP. Among them are former Punjab Pradesh Congress President (PPCC) and state minister Sunil Jakhar, and four top ministers from Captain’s Cabinet – Raj Kumar Verka, a Dalit leader from Majha, Sundar Sham Arora, working president of PPCC, and Balbir Singh Sidhu and Gurpreet Singh Kangar, a prominent Jat-Sikh leaders.

    Sources said that the main challenge before the BJP is how to accommodate Amrinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, who is a former Union minister and sitting Member of Parliament from Patiala. Preneet Kaur has reportedly decided to hang her boots and hand over the mantle to her daughter Jai Inder Kaur. She wants the BJP to promise the Patiala Lok Sabha ticket to Jai Inder Kaur.

    The BJP leadership is reportedly not happy with the fact that Perneet Kaur has not left the Congress even as her husband and most of his friends have deserted the party.

    Sources said that the BJP is also not keen on accommodating Jai Inder Kaur because of the involvement of her husband’s company Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd in alleged misappropriation of bank money and the resultant cases in CBI and the Enforcement Directorate. Jai Inder is married to Gurpal Singh of the Sansi royal family who owns and runs the Simbhaoli Sugars Ltd in Uttar Pradesh, the ITC Welcomhotel in Amritsar, besides other businesses.

    Jai Inder has been helping her parents in elections and recently became the president of the All India Jat Mahasabha replacing Navjot Kaur, wife of former Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.

    The details of the merger of Captain’s party with the BJP would be worked out on his return from London. The decision of Preneet’s entry into the BJP would be taken by the BJP in consultation with him.

  • ‘Thoko Thoko, Ruko!! Zoor k Thoko!’: Amarinder mocks Sidhu after Channi declared Congress CM face for Punjab

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: The Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress has taken a jibe at Congress’s state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu after Charanjit Singh Channi was declared the chief ministerial candidate for the assembly polls.

    Using a hashtag ‘#CurtainsForSidhu’ on its Twitter handle, it shared a picture in which Gandhi, Sidhu, Channi and Sunil Jakhar held each other’s hands and raised them in the air.

    However, the face of Sidhu got covered accidentally for a few seconds because of his shawl.

    “A picture is worth a thousand words,” said the PLC in a tweet on Sunday.

    Further mocking Sidhu, the PLC said, “Thoko Thoko, Ruko!! Zoor k Thoko!,” a reference to Sidhu’s penchant of saying “Thoko Tali”.

    Before the announcement of the CM face, Sidhu had said in a tweet, “Nothing great was ever achieved without an act of decision”.

    “Warm welcome to our leading light Rahul Ji, who comes to give clarity to Punjab. All will abide by his decision !!!”.

    To this, the PLC replied, “You won’t.”

    Singh was removed from the post of the chief minister by the Congress last September and later he floated his own party.

    The PLC is fighting the February 20 Punjab assembly polls in alliance with the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt).

  • Congress leader Luv Kumar Goldy joins Punjab Lok Congress

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Senior Congress leader and two-time MLA from Garhshankar, Luv Kumar Goldy on Monday joined the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) along with his supporters, ahead of the February 20 assembly polls in the state.

    While joining the party, Goldy said he always had faith and confidence in the leadership of Amarinder Singh, according to a party statement.

    He said after taking his supporters into confidence he decided to join the PLC.

    Goldy said Punjab needed the leadership of Singh as his successors have proved utter failures.

    He said the Congress was in a “state of civil war” and its candidates will lose deposit in most of constituencies.

    Welcoming Goldy into party fold, Singh, who is in isolation due to COVID-19, in a message said, Goldy belonged to a respectable political family of Garhshankar which had great contributions towards the freedom of the country and welfare of the state.

  • Amarinder Singh’s Punjab Lok Congress appoints 5 vice presidents, 17 general secretaries

    By PTI

    CHANDIGARH: Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday appointed five vice presidents and 17 general secretaries for his newly launched political outfit Punjab Lok Congress.

    General secretary in-charge (Organization) Kamal Sain said the order for new appointments at the party posts were issued on Sunday.

    The five vice-presidents are Amrik Singh Aliwal, Prem Mittal, Farzana Alam, Harjinder Singh Thekedar and Sanjay Inder Singh Bunny Chahal.

    The general secretaries include Rajwinder Kaur Bhagike, Rajinder Singh Raja, Pushpinder Singh Bhandari and Sarita Sharma.

    Rohit Kumar Sharma has been appointed Mohali’s district president and advocate Sandeep Gorsi has been appointed as the chairman of PLC’s Legal Cell, he said.

    Notably, the BJP has stitched an alliance with the Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa-led SAD (Sanyukt) and the Punjab Lok Congress, led by Amarinder Singh, who quit the Congress following his unceremonious exit as the chief minister last year.

    The state will vote on February 14 and the counting will take place on March 10.

  • Amarinder meets with Amit Shah, Nadda in Delhi

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Former Punjab chief minister and leader of the newly floated Punjab Lok Congress Amarinder Singh on Monday met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda here.

    The BJP has announced that it will contest the Punjab assembly polls in alliance with Singh’s party.

    The meeting is underway at Shah’s residence where all three are present.

    Singh has been meeting various BJP leaders to chalk out a strategy for the Punjab elections.

    Both parties are expected to take various offshoots of the Akali Dal on board and forge a bigger alliance.

  • Punjab polls: Kejriwal promises international airport in Jalandhar; Amarinder attacks Channi again

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH:  The entire Jalandhar city was painted in the color of patriotism on Wednesday with a tricolour in hands and reverberating slogans of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.

    This was the view of the Tiranga Yatra (Tricolor procession) led by AAP’s National Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is on a two-day visit to Punjab.

    Kejriwal said, “It’s a wonderful tricolor procession. The people of Jalandhar showered us with lots of love. We want to make Punjab prosperous. We want to take the state forward by establishing peace and brotherhood here.”

    He added, “India’s biggest Sports University will be built in Jalandhar when AAP is formed in Punjab in 2022.’’ Kejriwal said the people of Doaba, a stronghold of NRIs, have to go to Delhi, Chandigarh and Amritsar to catch flights.

    “They won’t have to travel far to catch flights after the formation of the AAP government. ‘Aap Ki Sarkar’ will build an international airport in Jalandhar.”

    Two children, who came in the march, gave their piggy bank money to Kejriwal as their contribution to the party fund. 

    Meanwhile, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday targeted chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi over the alleged posting of the police officers in the state, asking why he did not order a probe into the issue.

    Singh took a dig at Channi’s “alertness and promptness” in ordering a probe into the circumstances leading to the leaking of selective pages of a letter written by a senior police officer to the Director General of Police but hesitated to do the same over the issue of posting of police officers.

    The former chief minister said Channi should have shown the same promptness when one of his ministerial colleagues had allegedly leveled serious charges of corruption in the appointment of the senior superintendents of police and deputy superintendents of police in the state, said a statement issued by the Amarinder Singh-led Punjab Lok Congress.

    A few days ago, a Punjab minister had reportedly leveled allegations of acceptance of money in lieu of posting of district police chiefs.

    The Akali Dal had then also demanded a probe into the accusations.

    Amarinder Singh said he understood the “despair and frustration” of “this government” as it was getting “exposed with every passing day with every fake promise and announcement it made”.

    “You would always ask for just two days of authority to put everyone behind the bars”, he said.

    “What happened now, as you are already there for about three months and have not arrested a single person so far,” he added, apparently referring to Channi.

    Channi on Tuesday had ordered registration of an FIR in connection with the leak of a letter written by a senior police officer who cited some legal hurdles in conducting reinvestigation in some drug cases against a senior Akali leader.

    The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) requested the Election Commission on Wednesday to review the postings and transfers of Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) and other officers allegedly done with an “ulterior motive” of influencing the upcoming Punjab assembly polls.

    In a representation to the full bench of the Election Commission of India (ECI) here, a two-member SAD delegation of Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema also urged the panel to appoint a regular director general of police on merit in the state to boost confidence of the people and also deploy central forces at polling booths, according to a party release.

    It called for videography at all polling booths and requested the EC to issue directions to the state government to stop “misleading and bogus advertisements” at the cost of taxpayers’ money.

    The SAD representation said the manner in which transfers were allegedly being done on “monetary concerns”, as reported by a section of the media, had put a big question mark on the conduct of the forthcoming assembly elections in a free and fair manner.

    It said it was strange that in the last three months, the government could not appoint a regular DGP and had purposely appointed an acting DGP to keep senior officers on “tenterhooks and coerce” them into implementing its “political agenda of vendetta” against the SAD and its top leadership.

    The ECI full bench arrived here on Wednesday on a two-day visit to take stock of the preparations for the Punjab assembly polls that are due early next year.

    On the first day of the visit, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra and Election Commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey held separate meetings with political representatives and officials of police and paramilitary forces, according to an official statement.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Dearth of issues rises for Punjab Congress after farm laws’ scrapping 

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH: The ruling Congress in Punjab could be in trouble with the decision on rollback of the three central farm laws bound to change the political climate of the state – with assembly elections a few months away. 

    While the Shiromani Akali Dal is in no mood to have alliance with former ally BJP,  the Amarinder Singh-floated Punjab Lok Congress is likely to have a seat-sharing deal with the saffron party. It will be no smooth sailing for the Congress as well as the Aam Aadmi Party is likely to be hit the hardest. Also, it remains to be seen whether farm unions will form a party or decide to back one.

    According to a Congress leader, “State president Navjot Singh Sidhu had made it clear that it is not necessary that all sitting MLAs may be given the ticket. Thus, the party foresees the risk of snubbed party leaders jumping ship to the Amarinder Singh’s party. This could eat into the Congress vote share.”

    On the other hands it is now clear that the Shiromani Akali Dal will not join hands with former ally the Bharatiya Janata Party, with party president Sukhbir Singh Badal ruling out all possibilities. Meanwhile, a senior farmer leader on condition of anonymity said that their main objective was to make sure that the three farm laws are repealed and MSP guarantee realised.

    “We have won half the battle. We have been saying that farmers will not fight elections and opposed Haryana farmer leader Gurnam Singh Charuni as well. Once our agitation is over when the Central government accepts all our demands, we will form a party or decide to back one,” he said, adding that the unions will take feedback from cadre before a move is made.

    Sources in  the AAP said that once the farm laws issue is over, the only option for the party will be to hard sell its performance in Delhi and score on issues with the education and health sectors, drug mafia, power costs, urban renewal, unemployment, sand and transport mafia in Punjab. 

  • Hurt by your conduct, Captain Amarinder tells Sonia, quits

    Express News Service

    CHANDIGARH:  Former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday formally snapped ties with the Congress and announced his new outfit, the Punjab Lok Congress.

    He wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi saying he was deeply hurt by her conduct as also that of her children Rahul and Priyanka for propping up Navjot Singh Sidhu as the president of the state unit of the Congress. “I actually felt deeply hurt by your conduct and that of your children… I hereby tender my resignation from the  Indian National Congress in the interest of my state and my country,’’ his letter read.

    Playing the nationalism card, he said, “You chose to appoint an acolyte of the Pakistani deep state Navjot Sidhu who had publicly hugged Pakistan Army Chief Gen Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan… Khan and Bajwa are the people responsible for sending terrorists across the border to kill Indians.”

    Amarinder later told the media that the new party will be registered after approval from the Election Commission of India. The party will be formally launched later. Its policies, programmes, agenda and vision will be spelt out at the time of the launch, he added.