Captain Amarinder Says Seat Sharing With BJP During Punjab Polls is "110% On"

Analysts say that the repeal of the farm laws and the Captain running against the Congress will impact the polls.

Captain Amarinder Singh has said that he is open to an alliance with the BJP in Punjab.

(Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh told a news channel that "seat sharing with the BJP was 110 per cent on", according to a report by the Times of India on 20 November.

Singh, who recently severed ties with the Congress Party, was vehemently opposed to the farm laws that are now going to be repealed in parliament as announced by Prime Minister Modi on 19 November.

Senior Congress leaders have a mixed take on the electoral difficulties that the party could be facing if Amarinder Singh indeed goes a seat-sharing agreement with the BJP and the Akali Dal.

The current chief minister of Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi, has said that the Captain's presence in the elections as a candidate opposed to the Congress Party would change nothing, The Tribune reported.

However, some party members and analysts have admitted that the combination of two things – the repeal of the farm laws and the Captain contesting as an ally of the BJP – is definitely going to impact the Congress Party's electoral prospects, and not in a positive manner.

Amarinder Singh on Friday, 19 November, thanked the Prime Minister on his decision to take back the laws, and said that the farmers should join him in his electoral pursuits during the 2022 Punjab polls.

He even said, during an interview with Rahul Shiv Shankar on Times Now, that PM Modi had shown great humility by apologising to the farmers while revoking the legislations.

(With inputs from Times of India, The Tribune, and Times Now)