Senior BJP leader and former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has refuted claims of him meeting Congress matriarch Sonia Gandhi, saying that he will "always remain committed" to the saffron party. Terming claims on social media about a meeting between him and Sonia Gandhi "baseless", the former Congress leader said, "...it is the principle of my life that a decision once taken can never be taken back."
He asserted that he was committed to BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and party president JP Nadda. "I have made up my mind forever and will always remain committed to the BJP. At such a stage, you don't look back," the former Congress leader said in a PRO release cited by news agency ANI.
In 2021, Captain Amarinder Singh resigned as the CM of Punjab after his discontent with Congress leadership over the appointment of Navjot Singh Sidhu as the head of the party's Punjab unit boiled to the surface. The veteran leader later floated the Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) and merged it with the BJP after the party failed to win any seats in the 2022 Punjab Assembly Election.
Meanwhile, tension prevails within Congress in Punjab over the party's alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) under the banner of the newly formed INDIA Opposition bloc. Currently, AAP is the ruling party in Punjab, whereas Congress is the main Opposition party.
Some leaders of Punjab Congress are weary of cooperation with AAP in the state. Earlier this week, the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Pratap Singh Bajwa, said on X that the state's leaders were not willing to ally with AAP in the 2024 Lok Sabha Election.
(With inputs from ANI)