A day after Punjab’s former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made it clear that he would soon be parting ways with the Congress after being “humiliated”, another round of public mudslinging started on Friday — this time between the party’s Punjab general secretary in-charge Harish Rawat and the Captain.
Rawat issued a detailed statement of how Amarinder was “never humiliated” and was always “kept in high esteem”, how he was given free hand but failed to deliver, how he lost the support of legislators because of his stubbornness.
Quick to respond, Amarinder said that Rawat’s statement proves that the party finds itself in a “pathetic situation” in Punjab.
Claiming that Amarinder’s announcement to quit the Congress seemed to be taken “under pressure”, Rawat asked the senior Congress leader to “rethink” and urged him not to help the BJP in any way.
Reacting, Amarinder said that the only pressure that he has been under is the pressure of his loyalty to the party for which he has put up with the “humiliation” all these days.
Rawat said: “Congress has always kept Amarinder and his family in high esteem. Even after suffering a crushing defeat from Patiala constituency in 1998, he was inducted into the Congress party and immediately appointed by Sonia Gandhi as the president of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on three occasions from 1999 to 2002, 2010 to 2013, and 2015 to 2017.
