Former chief minister and Punjab Lok Congress chief Captain Amarinder Singh formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday. Singh also merged his newly formed party Punjab Lok Congress with the BJP. Along with Singh, former deputy speaker of Punjab Assembly Ajaib Singh Bhatti also joined the BJP.

He had floated the PLC in 2021 after quitting the Congress following his unceremonious exit as the chief minister and bitter tussle with former state unit party chief Navjot Singh Sindhu.

In his resignation letter to Congress chief Gandhi, Singh had said, “Despite my profound reservations and over the unanimous advice of almost all the MPs from Punjab, you chose to appoint an acolyte of the Pakistani deep state Navjot Sidhu who had publicly hugged the Pakistan Army Chief Gen Bajwa and Prime Minister Imran Khan, as the President of the Punjab Congress Committee."

Amarinder Singh was then replaced by Charanjit Singh Channi. Singh (80) will join the saffron party in the presence of party president Jagat Prakash Nadda and other leaders in Delhi.

Seven former MLAs and one former MP, who joined the PLC, were among those to follow Singh.

The former Punjab chief minister recently returned from London following spinal surgery and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah. After his meeting with Shah on September 12, Singh said he held a very productive discussion on various issues related to national security, rising cases of narco-terrorism in Punjab, and the future roadmap for the state's overall holistic development.

First Published:Sept 19, 2022 2:19 PM IST