Amarinder's exit will not affect the party: Congress
Darpan News Desk IANS, 20 Oct, 2021 10:58 AM
New Delhi, Oct 20 (IANS) Congress leaders on Wednesday said the exit of senior party leader and former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh -- who announced forming a new party -- will not affect the prospects of the Congress.
The issue was up for deliberation on Wednesday during the meeting between the party leaders and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Congress' Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat.
The Congress is currently preparing an estimation of the number of leaders who are likely to quit.
However, sources say that people close to Singh are unlikely to quit the party.
The Congress leaders are watching his moves ahead of the new party formation and sources say that all the Congress members have distanced themselves after he worked out a "patch up formula" with the BJP.
Congress' Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat said "his decision will not make any difference to Congress".
"The party's performance will depend on the work of the new chief minister (Charanjit Singh Channi), and he is doing well," Rawat added.
Talking about Amarinder Singh, the former Uttarakhand chief minister said "it seems that he has killed the secular Amarinder within him... and how can he forgive the BJP for keeping the farmers on Delhi borders since the last one year."
The Punjab unit has been asked to keep an eye on the movements of the rebels and to pacify them ahead of the elections and dissuade them from joining the former Chief Minister.
Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said "we have no fear... if Amarinder goes with the BJP, there must be some pressure on him."
Amarinder Singh on Tuesday said that he would soon announce the launch of his own political party to serve the interests of the people, including the farmers who have been fighting for their rights for almost a year now.
He said that he is hopeful of a seat-sharing arrangement with the BJP for next year's Assembly elections in the state, if the farmers' issues are resolved in their interest.
In a series of tweets, his media advisor Raveen Thukral quoted Amarinder Singh as saying: "The battle for Punjab's future is on. Will soon announce the launch of my own political party to serve the interests of Punjab and its people, including our farmers who've been fighting for their survival for over a year."
Amid the turmoil within the ruling Congress party and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal's visit to Punjab, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Wednesday announced to waive pending electricity bills of 55 lakh defaulters, covering 80 per cent of the total consumers.
Sidhu resigned much to the dismay of the Congress party and on the day when the party was going gaga over the joining of Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani.
He was accompanied by AAP Punjab President and MP Bhagwant Mann, Punjab affairs in-charge Jarnail Singh, co-in-charge Raghav Chadha, MLAs Aman Arora, Kultar Singh Sandhwan, Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Baljinder Kaur, Amarjit Singh Sandoa, and Master Baldev Singh, among others.
On Tuesday, IANS had first ran the story -- "'Upset' Amarinder likely to meet Shah, his office denies". Since then, speculation was doing the rounds about a likely meeting between the two leaders. However, Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral had then denied the former meeting Shah and BJP chief J.P. Nadda, saying he's on a personal visit to Delhi to meet 'some friends'.
The petitioner contended that her daughter is a permanent resident of the US, while her son holds an American passport. Jauhar argued that children have been taken to an "undisclosed destination", as they are neither in Chennai nor at Tamil Nadu's Virudhnagar, and that his client suspects they have been taken to Maharashtra.
After failing to get any information about Gurdeep's whereabouts since he left Delhi a week ago, his uncle Shamsher Singh, who is also at Singhu, lodged the missing complaint at Kundli police station which falls under Sonepat district of Haryana and is very near the farmers' protest site.
