Announcing that “in-principle” decision has been taken on alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday made it clear that power-sharing with the saffron party and other partners would not be in terms of seats.
The chances of a candidate to win, regardless of the party, would determine the allocation of seats.
Setting “winnability” as the sole criteria to decide on the candidates, Capt Amarinder also made it clear that he would not take “any disgruntled” or “leftover” Congress leader in the party , but they will only be inducted as per the party’s policy.
Capt Amarinder, responding to media queries on a possible alliance with BJP for the upcoming polls in Punjab, said: “In principle, a decision has been taken, now seat adjustment is to be done. We will also do seat adjustments with (Sukhdev Singh) Dhindsa sahab’s party. I will tell both parties that we should pick winners and support those candidates.”
The assertion came days after the Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday had stated that the BJP was in talks with Capt Amarinder and Dhindsa for an alliance for the assembly polls early next year.
Capt Amarinder, who launched the office of his new political party — Punjab Lok Congress — at Chandigarh’s Sector 9 on Monday, went on to claim that he is still the “number one leader in
Punjab”, and the short time ahead election was “not a challenge for me”.
“In 1980, I defeated Akali Dal’s Ajit Singh Sarhadi in 14 days. Akali Dal had declared his candidature four months ago, and I won the election by 1.50 lakh votes,” he said.
Capt Amarinder maintained that he and his party are ready for the ballot battle in Punjab.
“The membership drive started 10 days ago. Soon, a group will be formed at the district level also,” he said.
Declaring that the “aim is to win Punjab”, he asserted, “We will win, and there is no doubt about it” and also maintained that he would soon be meeting BJP national president JP Nadda to discuss the possible seat adjustments among all three parties — BJP, Punjab Lok Congress, and Dhindsa-led SAD (Sanyukta).
“We are yet to decide on which party will get how many seats to field candidates and there has been no decision on the CM face so far,” he said.
Capt Amarinder, sharing his idea, said that seat sharing would not be in numbers but according to the winning candidates.
“For seat adjustment, we will go and I cannot tell you the numbers (of seats each party will contest)...I would request both the BJP and Dhindsa’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) to pick winners (winnable candidates),” he said.
“If Dhindsa’s party puts up a winning candidate (from a particular constituency), then I will support him and the BJP too will support, I am sure. If the BJP candidate is a winning candidate, we will support him,” he said, adding, “We all have one aim, that is to win Punjab and we will win it”.
Capt Amarinder also maintained that many senior Congressmen are in touch with him, and may switch sides once the model code of conduct is implemented. “Otherwise, they will do what they did in the Patiala mayor’s case...They will trouble those leaders in the same way,” he said.
Capt Amarinder floated the new political outfit in October after he was unceremoniously removed from the post of Chief Minister in September following a bitter power tussle with Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu. Charanjit Singh Channi, a minister in Capt Amarinder’s cabinet,
succeeded him as the Chief Minister in a sudden turn of events.
Capt Amarinder had maintained that he would contest 2022 Punjab elections in alliance with the BJP if the farmers’ issues were resolved by the Centre.
“I think there are no issues left now,” he said, adding that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had repealed the farm laws and also constituted a committee to resolve the remaining issues such as the minimum support price (MSP) on crops.
At the same time, Capt Amarinder declared that he would go to elections on the basis of his performance
as the Chief Minister, claiming that 92 per cent of the pre-poll promises have been fulfilled during his four-and-a-half year tenure.
Reacting to the full-page advertisements in new,: “I laugh seeing them. It takes four months to a year from planning to implementation of any announcement. Clearance has to be taken from many agencies, including the central government. All Channi Government is doing, is drama.
Capt Amarinder alleged that corruption has increased under the Channi Government, with
illegal sand mining taking place in Chief Minister’s own constituency.
Also targeting the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Capt Amarinder said that if AAP is so powerful in Punjab, “why 11 out of 20 MLAs ran away. They don’t have any ground reality in Punjab”.