After appointing him as State party president recently, Congress has sought to project Capt Amarinder Singh as its chief ministerial candidate for next year’s Punjab Assembly elections.
The virtual announcement came in New Delhi where senior party leader Ambika Soni said, “The face of the Congress campaign will be Capt Amarinder Singh,” to a query in the presence of Amarinder Singh, his predecessor Pratap Singh Bajwa and Punjab ClP leader Charanjit Singh Channi. Asked specifically whether Singh is the CM candidate, she said, “How can I say this thing now. You draw your own conclusion.”
Amarinder, who is Punjab Congress chief, said that Congress had lost the last Assembly elections in 2012 by a 0.8 per cent vote share while PPP had got 5 per cent of the votes. “Had we come together, we could have saved Punjab,” he said. Amarinder was chief minister of the state from 2002 to 2007. Congress lost two consecutive assembly elections in Punjab to SAD-BJP combine.