By PTI
CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday asserted that winnability will be the key criteria for picking his party’s candidates for the upcoming assembly polls and said he will not take every Congress leader dumped by the party and only those who fit in his outfit’s ideology will be considered.
Replying to a question on inducting people from the Congress, Singh said, ‘We will take people who can fit in our ideology and the way they are with us. It is not that we will induct those who are dumped by the Congress. We will see.”
“(Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh) Sidhu is saying he will change faces (candidates) in 35 seats and does it mean that we will take them all. No,” he said.
Singh reasserted that his Punjab Lok Congress, along with the BJP and former Akali leader Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s outfit, will form the next government in the state.
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To a question on the chief ministerial face of the alliance, he said three of the parties will decide that and a decision will be taken collectively.
He was interacting with reporters on Monday after opening his new party’s office in upscale Sector 9 here.
He was accompanied by his son Raninder Singh and daughter Jai Inder Kaur.
Singh quit the Congress and launched his Punjab Lok Congress after his unceremonious exit as the Punjab chief minister in September.
He said the membership drive of his new outfit had already begun.
“We are very hopeful that in the upcoming elections, we will win….with seat adjustment with the BJP and Dhindsa sahib, we will form the next government,” said Singh.
Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday had said that the BJP was in talks with Singh and Dhindsa for an alliance for the assembly polls early next year.
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To a question on when he will meet BJP president J P Nadda for seat-sharing talks, Singh said that in principle, a decision has been taken on the alliance.
“Now it is only seat adjustment. For seat adjustment, we will go and I cannot tell you the numbers (of seats each party will contest),” he said.
He said he had already spoken to the prime minister and the Union home minister on the seat adjustment issue.
While winnability will be the key criteria for his outfit’s party candidates, Singh said he would request both the BJP and Dhindsa’s Shiromani Akali Dal (Sanyukt) to pick “winners (winnable candidates)”.
“If Dhindsa’s party puts up a winning candidate (from a particular constituency), then I will support him and the BJP too will support, I am sure. If the BJP candidate is a winning candidate, we will support him,” he said.
“All have one aim, that is to win Punjab and we will win it,” he said.
To a question on farmers still sitting at Delhi’s borders, he said that the three laws against which they called the protest have now been repealed by Parliament.
He said the prime minister is also forming a committee on the minimum support price and the names of five farmers have been sought for their inclusion in this committee.
He said he has received positive feedback from both urban and rural areas on his party.
Asked whether the time was too short to launch the party, he said time does not matter and referred to his thumping poll victory over an Akali candidate in 1980 even though he got just 14 days to campaign.
Asked which Congress MLAs could join his party, he refused to make a comment, saying otherwise they will be harassed.
