"Shocked At Blatant Lies": Captain vs Congress

Taking strong exception to Congress's Punjab in-charge Harish Rawat's remarks that Captain Amarinder Singh "seems to be under some kind of pressure", the former Chief Minister replied Mr Rawat's claims and allegations were "outrageous". In a statement, Mr Amarinder, who was replaced as Chief Minister by Charanjit Singh Channi, said Mr Rawat's remarks were "were clearly prompted by the pathetic situation the party now found itself in the state after being on a winning spree for four-and-a-half years."

"We spoke just a day before the CLP (Congress Legislature Party) meeting was called. Mr Rawat told me then there was nothing in the works and even claimed he had not seen any letter sent by 43 MLAs. I am shocked at the blatant way in which he is now lying about this," the former Chief Minister said, referring to a meeting of Congress MLAs before he was asked to resign.

"Three weeks before stepping down as Chief Minister, I had offered my resignation to Mrs Sonia Gandhi but she had asked me to continue," Amarinder Singh said in the statement, adding the "humiliating manner" in which he was pushed into resigning just hours before the Congress meeting, which was clearly convened to oust him, was a matter of public record.

"The world saw the humiliation and the insult heaped on me, and yet Mr Rawat is making claims to the contrary," Amarinder Singh said. "If this was not humiliation, then what was it?"

Earlier on Friday, Mr Rawat had said Amarinder Singh's outburst that he was not treated well by the party was not true. "It is being said that he was humiliated. I would like to clarify that the party has always given him respect and treated him with high regard," Mr Rawat told reporters, amid the spiralling crisis in the Punjab Congress that started with Amarinder Singh's resignation as Chief Minister. "...Born out of his stubbornness, he was of the belief that he does not need any advice from anyone, including his own MLAs and Minister and party leadership," Mr Rawat said, detailing the simmering tension that grew into a crisis eventually.

Amarinder Singh yesterday told NDTV he would quit Congress for humiliating him. The Congress leader shocked the party when he went to meet BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, raising speculation that he might join the BJP. But he has ruled out joining any party, and said he met Mr Shah to discuss farm laws. While resigning as Chief Minister, however, Amarinder Singh had said he would keep "options open".

In his statement, Amarinder Singh recalled that Mr Rawat himself had publicly said after meeting him that he was satisfied by the Punjab government's track record on the 2017 poll promises.

"The Congress in-charge of Punjab had categorically stated, as recently as September 1, that the 2022 elections would be fought under Captain's leadership and the high command had no intention of replacing Captain. So how can he (Mr Rawat) now claim that the party leadership was dissatisfied with me, and if they were, then why did he deliberately keep me in the dark all this time?" Amarinder Singh said in the statement.

On Mr Rawat's remarks that Amarinder Singh seemed to be "under some kind of pressure", the former Chief Minister said the only pressure he had been under for the past few months was that of his own loyalty to the Congress, because of which he "continued to tolerate insult after insult."

"If the party did not intend to humiliate me, then why was Navjot Singh Sidhu allowed to openly criticise and attack me on social media and other public platforms for months? Why did the party give the rebels, led by Sidhu, a free hand in undermining my authority? Why was no cognizance given to the uninterrupted spree of electoral wins I handed over to the party through the four-and-a-half years I was in the saddle?" Amarinder Singh said.

In yet another attack, Mr Rawat said Amarinder Singh's "proximity" to Amit Shah puts a question mark his secular credentials.

Amarinder Singh's tactical move whose outcome is still unknown comes after persistent gnawing by a section of Congress MLAs seeking a leadership change in the state ahead of assembly election next year. Just two months ago Navjot Singh Sidhu was made the Punjab Congress chief despite objections by Amarinder Singh, who also openly made it known he would oppose any attempt by the party leadership to consider Mr Sidhu for the top post.