Asserting that Punjab’s polity was usually bipolar, Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Friday said that the 2017 assembly elections may turn out to be a contest between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party with the Akali Dal and BJP remaining on the fringes only.
He also ruled out forming a separate party, while asking, “Do you think with all this love, respect and support of MlAs, Congress workers and leaders and also the general public, I should be leaving my party and leaving everything behindIJ”
Capt Amarinder, while talking to the reporters at the residence of the ClP leader Sunil Jakhar after leading a dharna in front of Chief Minister’s residence, asserted that the Congress continued to be the strongest party in Punjab in terms of mass base and public support.
“Both during 2007 and 2012 elections, Congress had lost the election by merely one per cent of the votes against the Akali-BJP combine,” he said.
The former chief minister said that while the BJP remained inconsequential in Punjab, the Akali reputation had touched its nadir. “People, particularly the youngsters, do not like even to talk about Akalis and Badals,” he remarked, adding that the Congress was the only viable option before the people
of Punjab.
He said that Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may be commanding an appeal among a section of youth, but it does not have any experienced leadership except for Sucha Singh Chhotepur.
Replying to a question about Badal’s charges that the Congress had betrayed and let down late Harchand Singh longowal, Capt Amarinder retorted, “let me ask Badal as who betrayed him and who backed out of the accord which Sant longowal signed with Rajiv Gandhi.”
“Both Badal and Gurcharan Singh Tohra actually betrayed and backstabbed Sant longowal and he had to pay with his life,” he said. On the issue of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) also holding dharna outside the sugar mills for payment to the sugarcane growers, Capt Amarinder said: “It is a good thing as everyone in the party is working towards public welfare. What is wrong in it if we are holding a dharna here outside the CM residence while others are holding it outside the millsIJ” he asked.
He added, everybody’s purpose is to get the farmers their due which is pending for a long time. Capt Amarinder refused to divulge any details about his Thursday meeting with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the vice-president Rahul Gandhi. “It is a confidential matter between me and my party and I don’t like to go public about it,” he asserted, while adding that the leadership issue is the prerogative of the Congress president.