Punjab: Former CM Amarinder Singh likely to announce PLC, BJP merger on Sept 19
Chandigarh, September 16: Former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh's party Punjab Lok Congress is all set to merge his Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) party with the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sept 19.
Also Read| HC relief for Daler Mehndi as Punjabi singer gets bail in human trafficking case
Sources close to new Moti Bagh Palace revealed that Captain Amarinder would take the primary membership of the BJP in the presence of BJP National President JP Nadda at the BJP Headquarters in New Delhi, on Sept 19.
Besides Capt, around 6 or 7 former MLAs along with his son Raninder Singh, daughter Jai Inder Kaur, grandson Nirwan Singh are also likely to join BJP.
The talks about PLC's merger with BJP were doing the rounds for the last two months. In the past, Amarinder Singh had held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda.
Since then, the news of PLC's merger with BJP was stamped. On the other hand, after losing the assembly elections, the workers of PLC were confused about their political future, for whom the news of their party's merger with BJP has given political oxygen.
Capt Amarinder Singh, a close confidant of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and once a close aide of the Congress party, had remained Congress Chief of Punjab twice after the party gained majority in the state assembly in 2002 and 2017.
He had faced un-ceremonial ouster from the Congress, after certain party leaders had challenged his style of functioning just before the last assembly elections. He had been asked to resign from chief ministership just three months before the assembly elections, in which the party faced ignominious defeat.
Some of the Capt loyalists are already in the BJP fold.
Former PPCC president Sunil Jhakar had also joined the BJP, earlier this year, lamenting mistreatment at the hands of the party high command for voicing his concerns over issues that were plaguing the Congress party in Punjab.
Also Read| Pro-Khalistan graffiti on Swaminarayan temple in Toronto; India condemns incident
- Reported by Gagandeep Ahuja, PTC News
