Former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Friday lashed out at Congress secretary in charge for Punjab, Harish Chaudhary, over his “baseless accusations of being hand in glove with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), when he was the CM”.

Amarinder said although he owed no explanation to “an out of job legislator who has been sacked as a minister in Rajasthan for being named as an accused in the murder case of Kamlesh Prajapat, in Barmer, and inquiry for which has been handed over to the CBI by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot”, he still wanted to set the record straight.

“Had I had any understanding with the Prime Minister or the BJP when I was the Chief Minister, I would not have supported the farmers’ agitation and demanded repealing of the agriculture laws and passed a law in the Assembly against these”, he clarified.

Amarinder said, as the CM and home minister of Punjab, he was supposed to meet the Prime Minister and Union home minister. “Even your new CM (Charanjit Singh Channi) has met the PM and the HM and from your senseless logic then he should also be having an understanding with the BJP and waiting to be sacked”, he taunted Chaudhary.

The former CM said it was for the first time that a party in charge had made the state his permanent abode. “I have worked with 14 party in-charges like Pranab Mukherjee, Mohsina Kidwai, Janaradhan Dwivedi to name a few, and they would rarely interfere, leave aside visiting or settling down in Punjab”, he recalled, while pointing out, “a party in-charge is not supposed to settle down in the state he is assigned but to facilitate interaction and feedback to the high command”.

But, he added, here is a man, who has been sacked from the government for being named as an accused in a murder case in his home state, and is enjoying “Chief Ministerial power and privileges in Punjab, turning the Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi into a rubber stamp, by dictating terms to him”. He said, Chaudhary has been even attending the cabinet and other meetings of officers, which is illegal and unconstitutional.

The former Chief Minister questioned the legality of his getting a ministerial bungalow in Chandigarh and the entire Punjab Bhawan at his disposal, where he commands and dictates orders to the Chief Minister, other ministers and the officers. “Who is paying for his expenses?”, he asked.