- Formality fulfilled: Coming good on his proclamations of forming a new political outfit, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh announced the name of his new political party, Punjab Lok Congress, even as he formally tendered his resignation from the Indian National Congress (INC), stating in his letter to party president Sonia Gandhi that he was quitting in the “interest of my state and my country.”
- Parting potshots: Singh’s seven page letter was scathing in its criticism of Punjab’s Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, who he labelled “an acolyte of the Pakistani deep state” and “a person of unstable mind.” The former army man-turned-politician did not also spare Gandhi or her kids, Rahul and Priyanka, alleging that not only did her children patronise Sidhu but she herself “chose to turn a blind eye to the shenanigans of this gentleman.” Singh, who resigned in September after a bitter tussle with Sidhu, also accused Gandhi of hatching a conspiracy along with her children to force him out.
- Does he matter? While Singh has been a formidable force in Punjab politics, it has always been as part of one of the two main political outfits — the Congress and the Akali Dal. Considering that none of his erstwhile party or ministerial colleagues followed him when he quit as CM and from the Congress, or that he’s been seeking support from both the BJP and splinter Akali groups to bolster his political chances with the assembly elections just about three months away, it remains to be seen whether his party can be more than just a vote-splitter in a multi-party contest that also involves the AAP.
Punjab has a new party — and it’s another Congress
