It was an rude jolt for Capt Amarinder Singh after a walkout from Congress six months ago. The two-time former chief minister was defeated in his pocket-borough Patiala after three consecutive terms from there since 2002.
Not only did he lose Patiala to AAP’s Ajit Pal Singh Kohli 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. 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.
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. Amarinder, who will turn 80 soon, 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.
