From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh(80) is all set to join the Bharatiya Janata Party next week with his wife Preneet Kaur, a Congress MP, merging his 8-month old Punjab Lok Congress into the saffron party.
He is believed to have phoned from London his confidants, who had left Congress along with him, to make preparations for the process on his return from the UK next week. He had recently undergone a spinal surgery in London and he has by now recuperated, phoning Union Home Minister Amit Shah to formally induct him in the BJP. He had declined Shah’s offer earlier when asked to join the BJP during the Assembly elections.
The Patiala royal had gone into wilderness after facing a defeat from a first-timer AAP candidate in his bastion Patiala city, forfeiting his security deposit.
His unceremonious removal as the chief minister by the Congress in September last year after a month-long showdown with Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was elevated as the Punjab Congress president despite strong opposition. He had quit the Congress last November and floated his own political outfit.
Former MP Sunil Jakhar, who was replaced by Sidhu, is a close associate of the Captain. He as already joined the BJP followed by four former cabinet ministers — Balbir Singh Sidhu, Raj Kumar Verka, Gurpreet Singh Kangar and Sunder Sham Arora.
