Punjab: Amarinder Singh joins BJP, merges his newly launched party

Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday joined the BJP in New Delhi in the presence of Union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Kiren Rijiju, BJP leader Sunil Jakhar and the party’s Punjab chief Ashwani Sharma and merged its newly launched Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) with the saffron party.

Seven former MLAs and one former MP joined the BJP along with the 80-year-old politician who remained a formidable face of the Congress for decades in Punjab. The Captain’s son Raninder Singh and his daughter Jai Inder Kaur also joined the BJP, while his wife Praneet Kaur, who is a Congress MP from Patiala, was not present at the media briefing.

The BJP’s national executive member Harjit Grewal said that the merger of the PLC with the BJP had been decided prior to Singh leaving for London. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called earlier on June 27 to ask about Singh’s health after his surgery. Singh had floated the PLC after quitting Congress last year.

He recently returned from London after spinal surgery and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week.

The former Chief Minister, popularly known as Captain, contested the Punjab election in an alliance with the BJP, but did not win even a single seat. He lost on his home turf Patiala Urban.

Singh had quit the Congress unceremoniously last year after being removed from the CM post following his tussle with the then state Congress chief Navjot Singh Siddhu. He was replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi. Since then, several leaders have abandoned Congress to join the BJP across states, but the BJP, with whom he struck an alliance. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the elections defeating the incumbent Congress and relegating it to merely 18 seats out of the total 117. – INDIA NEWS STREAM