Former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has named his new party Punjab Lok Congress. Announcing the party's name in a Twitter post, Mr Singh said the approval for the party's registration is pending with the Election Commission of India and that it will get its poll symbol later.
The veteran politician announced the new party's name shortly after he resigned from the Congress, about one-and-a-half months after bitter infighting in the party's state unit forced Mr Singh to give up the Chief Minister post.
Following his resignation as Chief Minister, Mr Singh's meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah had fuelled speculation that he may join the BJP. But Mr Singh had subsequently announced that he will form a new party ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Punjab.
On whether he is open to an alliance with the BJP, Mr Singh said last month that his party will provide "issue-based" support and look for a seat-sharing arrangement if the ongoing farmers' protest against the three new farm laws was resolved in their interest. "I never said that I will align with the BJP. All I said was that I, my party, will look for a seat-sharing agreement," he said. "In military parlance, it's called concentration of forces," he remarked, adding that he had, however, not yet talked to the BJP on this.
In his resignation letter that he shared on social media, Mr Singh levelled several allegations against the Congress and its top leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he said that the two leaders had patronised his bitter rival and Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Listing his long association with the Congress and his achievements as Chief Minister, and invoking former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Mr Singh wrote to Mrs Gandhi that he "felt deeply hurt by your conduct and that of your children who I still deeply love as much as my own children".
He also said he is "neither tired nor retired". "I feel I have a lot to give and contribute to my beloved Punjab. I intend to soldier on and not fade away," Mr Singh wrote.
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