Captain Amarinder Singh, who resigned as chief minister of Punjab over a month ago, targeted his successor, Charanjit Singh Channi, over the farmers' protest issue on Saturday.
Channi had tweeted that he had spoken to Balbir Singh Rajewal, a leader of a group involved in the farmers' protests. Channi shared a video of his phone call to Rajewal, in which he said the Punjab government had called a special Assembly session to "reject" the contentious farm laws.
Responding to Channi, Amarinder declared that during his tenure, the government had passed amended laws on the issue. Raveen Thukral, Amarinder's media adviser, tweeted that Amarinder had said, "… We spoke to farmer leaders on #FarmLaws & passed our own amendment laws in Assembly too. But Governor is sitting over them & he'll sit over any new laws. Pls don't mislead the farmers with false promises."
Earlier in the day, Amarinder had rejected reports there had been back-channel talks with the Congress for a rapprochement. "Reports of backend talks with @INCIndia are incorrect. The time for rapprochement is over. The decision to part ways with the party was taken after much thought and is final. I'm grateful to (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi ji for her support but will not stay in Congress now," Thukral tweeted, quoting the former chief minister.
"I will soon launch my own party and will hold talks for seat sharing with @BJP4India (BJP), breakaway Akali factions and others for the Punjab (Assembly) elections in 2022 once farmers' issue is resolved. I want to build strong collective force in interest of Punjab and its farmers," Amarinder said.
