Punjab assembly polls: Captain Amarinder knocked down a Patiala peg

CHANDIGARH: It was an embarrassing walk to the pavilion for Capt

Amarinder

Singh after a grand walkout from Congress six months ago. The two-time former chief minister was defeated in his pocket-borough

Patiala

after three consecutive terms from here since 2002.

Not only did he lose Patiala (Urban) to AAP’s Ajit Pal

Singh Kohli

from Patiala (Urban) by a margin of 19,873 votes, his newly minted party — Punjab Lok Congress (PLC) – failed to bag a single seat despite the alliance with BJP. For someone who vowed to avenge the “humiliation” of having to step down as chief minister in September by settling scores in the electoral arena, the outcome was a rude jolt.

Amarinder led Congress to a 77-seat victory in the 2017 assembly elections and had celebrated his elevation as CM on his 75th birthday on March 11. At 79, barely months before the assembly elections, the scion of the erstwhile Patiala princely estate began his new political innings by breaking away from Congress, claiming that many senior leaders were waiting to follow suit and join him. Not a single Congress MLA crossed over, and his own loyalists Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi and Fateh Jung Bajwa preferred to join BJP over PLC. Half a dozen PLC candidates too sought to contest on the BJP symbol.

With the electoral drubbing, Amarinder’s grudge match with Congress remains, and his larger plan of emerging as a viable regional voice has come a cropper. His new friendships are not without complications either. The alliance with BJP and Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s SAD (Sanyukt) has little to boast in the state and the equation could get trickier if BJP ropes in more prominent Sikh leaders or joins hands with other parties.

Amarinder, who will turn 80 on Friday, is known to withdraw from the political scene when out of office and it remains to be seen if he continues to play an active political role in the state now. There is also uncertainty over the political future of his wife, Patiala MP

Preneet Kaur

, who has been served a show-cause notice by Congress for supporting Amarinder’s outfit in Patiala.

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