Taking strong exception to Harish Rawat’s “no-holds barred attack” against him, former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday rejected the Congress leader Harish Rawat’s “outrageous claims and allegations,” which he said were clearly prompted by the “pathetic situation” the Congress now found itself in the state after being on a winning spree for four-and-a-half years.
Amarinder Singh said the only pressure he had been under for the past few months was that of his own loyalty to the Congress. He also said that Congress is “clearly on backfoot” now in Punjab, which will face assembly polls early next year.
Amarinder Singh said he had offered resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi three weeks before stepping down as chief minister but she had asked him to continue.
He said the “humiliating manner” in which he was pushed into resigning just hours before the CLP meeting, “which was clearly convened to oust him, was a matter of public record”.
He rejected remarks of Harish Rawat, Congress in-charge of Punjab, who addressed a press conference earlier in the day.
“The world saw the humiliation and the insult heaped on me, and yet Mr Rawat is making claims to the contrary,” he remarked, adding “If this was not humiliation then what was it?” Amarinder Singh said.
Rawat, he said, should put himself in his (Captain Amarinder’s) shoes, and then, perhaps, he would realise how insulting the entire affair was.
The former Punjab Chief Minister recalled that Rawat himself had publicly stated after meeting him that he was satisfied by his government’s track record on the 2017 poll promises.
In fact, the Congress in-charge of Punjab had categorically stated, as recently as September 1, that the 2022 elections would be fought under his (Captain Amarinder’s) leadership and the high command had no intention of replacing him, he pointed out.
