Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh will hold a press conference in Chandigarh on Wednesday, according to the leader’s media advisor Raveen Thukral. This comes after Amarinder’s announcement last week of floating a new party a month after stepping down from the CM’s post following a long spell of a bitter power tussle with bete noire Navjot Singh Sidhu, the Punjab Congress chief.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Thukral said, “Former Punjab CM @capt_amarinder will address a Press Conference in Chandigarh tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct 27) at 11 am. The event will be telecast live on his Facebook Page. Do tune in.”
Reportedly, Amarinder is likely to declare his resignation from Congress, and launch his new party at the press conference.
The former CM had on October 20 announced to float a new political party, also adding that he is open to ally with the BJP, provided they resolve the farmers’ protest. He also said he would not just be looking at an alliance with “like-minded parties such as breakaway Akali groups” for the 2022 Punjab polls, but also those within the Congress, who have been treated unfairly by the top brass.
Recently, Amarinder was mired into a controversy over his long association with Pakistani scribe Aroosa Alam. Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had last week said that a probe would be conducted on Alam’s alleged ISI links. Captain Amarinder had hit back and in tweets posted on his behalf by his media adviser Thukral, had said Alam had been “coming for 16 years with due GoI clearances”.
As the slugfest turned personal, Capt Amarinder on Monday released Alam’s photographs with former Union ministers Sushma Swaraj and Yashwant Sinha, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Uttar Pradesh CM Mulayam Singh Yadav, among others, and asked if these leaders are “ISI contacts too”.
ALSO READ: ‘Don’t Talk About Secularism’: Amarinder Tears Into Congress, Questions Alliance With Shiv Sena
Speaking to News18, Alam said she had no links to the ISI. “The biggest democracy in the world is insulting a woman. I feel sad that my photo is being shared again and again. I too have a family, children and friends; I reiterate that I am innocent.”
Meanwhile, Sidhu’s wife Navjyot Kaur, reacting to the Captain’s formation of a new political party, said “no one from Congress will join him”. “We all know what kind of a leader Amarinder is…he didn’t do anything over the last 4.5 years…what will he do with a new party?…. It would have been better for him to have joined SAD,” she added.
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