‘Not a horse to be put out in pasture’: Captain slams Gandhi family’s ‘interference’, says Sidhu’a elevation created ‘bad blood’

Captain Amarinder SIngh said that the Congress lost the ground very quickly in Punjab in the last six months after Sidhu was made the Punjab party president.

Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has said that after leaving the Congress, he could have either floated a new party or join hands with someone, but he couldn’t have sat at home as he can do a lot for Punjab. 

Speaking to News18, the 80-year-old said that Morarji Desai was the prime minister at the age of 92 and Parkash Singh Badal is 15 years older to him, then “why can’t I stay on?”

Singh said that the Congress lost the ground very quickly in Punjab in the last six months after Sidhu was made the Punjab party president, adding that the latter’s elevation in the state “created some bad blood”. 

He said that he had no idea why the Gandhi family asked him to step down as the chief minister, adding that he had never experienced “this sort of interference as the CM”.     

“I had a very close relationship with Rajiv Gandhi…I don’t know why the family did what they did. Everything can’t be decided in Delhi. I got a call from the party President (Sonia Gandhi) to resign. All that she said was that ‘Amarinder, you should resign’,” Singh was quoted by News18 as saying.

He said he told Sonia that he will himself step down as the Punjab chief minister once he leads the party to victory in the upcoming assembly elections. “As far as the Congress is concerned…It is over. I am not a horse to be put out in the pasture,” he said.