2022 polls: Punjab CM says govt & party leadership will unitedly drive Congress to victory

Weeks after the Congress top brass implemented the 'truce formula' in its Punjab unit, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Saturday affirmed that his government and party leadership would work 'unitedly' towards steering Congress to victory in the ensuing assembly elections. The affirmation of the Chief Minister came during a state-level function organized on the 82nd martyrdom of Udham Singh. 

Acknowledging that there are two power centres in the Punjab unit of the Congress party, Captain Amarinder Singh said, "There is nothing unusual as Navjot Singh Sidhu, in the capacity of the PPCC President and I, in the capacity of the Chief Minister are performing two different sets of responsibilities." Having said that, he asserted that the party was in a good position in the state right now. 

The statement of Captain Amarinder Singh comes after Navjot Singh Sidhu took over as the Punjab Pradesh Congres Committee (PPCC) President during a ceremony on July 23, which, contrary to everyone's expectations, saw in attendance Captain Amarinder Singh. During the installation, Sidhu missed mentioning his name along with the names of leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, speaking about which, Amarinder said," It is hardly any issue and doesn't affect anybody at all.

'My govt fulfilled 95 percent of the promises': Capt Amarinder Singh 

Talking about the work of his government in the past tenure, he said, "My government had already fulfilled 93% of poll promises made in the election manifesto and would soon go up to 95 percent. The 5 percent of the remaining promises are left only due to the GST regime because when their party drafted the manifesto there was the system of VAT, not the prevailing GST." 

He also took the opportunity to address the 18 point agenda given by the Kharge Committee. "There was some confusion in this regard as his government had already implemented several points of this agenda and the remaining others would be accomplished soon," he said, adding that he has already apprised  Kharge along with Sonia Gandhi on the matter. 

The term of the current Congress government in Punjab, led by Captain Amarinder Singh, is going to expire on March 27, 2022, after which Punjab will once again go to the polls most probably in the month of March to elect 117 members of the legislative assembly. 

In the run-up to the ensuing elections, the Chief Minister asserted that there were no plans of roadshows and rallies so far, amid COVID-19, which is at present under control. He, however, said that he will act according to the advice of medical experts on this count.