Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh
Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned from the Congress on Tuesday, revealed the name of his new political party 'Punjab Lok Congress' in his resignation letter. The party will be formally launched later and the Election Commission has no objection to its name, Amarinder Singh said.
The move by the former CM came days after he dismissed reports of back-end talks with the Congress, saying the time for rapprochement is over.
After announcing the name of his party, he said the registration of the party is pending approval with the Election Commission of India.
"The Election Commission (EC) has no objection to the proposed name, Punjab Lok Congress," he said.
Amarinder Singh said the EC had given three symbols from which one was to be chosen. He said his party had also submitted three different symbols and the final symbol would be chosen from a set of six, three suggested by the commission and three proposed by the party.
The party will be formally launched later, he said in a statement. The policies, programmes, agenda and vision will be spelt out at the time of the launch of the party, he said.
In his seven-page resignation letter, Amarinder Singh slammed the Gandhis for a "conspiracy" to oust him from the state government. In the letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he listed out his achievements as chief minister.
In a tweet, Singh said, “I have today sent my resignation to Congress President Ms Sonia Gandhi ji, listing my reasons for the resignation. ‘Punjab Lok Congress’ is the name of the new party. The registration is pending approval with the Election Commission. The party symbol will be approved later."
A few days ago, Singh had dismissed reports of back channel talks with the Congress as “incorrect”, saying the time for rapprochement was over and his decision to leave the grand old party was final. He has indicated that he will float a political party ahead of Assembly polls in Punjab.
