Captain Amarinder Singh apparently quit the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Congress following denial of SAD ticket from Bathinda and party's alliance with the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).
The Punjab Congress president's biography 'Captain Amarinder Singh- The People’s Maharaja’, penned by Chandigarh-based author, Khushwant Singh, has revealed that the difference between Captain Amarinder Singh and SAD leader Parkash Singh Badal resulted in the former's exit from the party.
“The seeds of disharmony were sown after the Akali Dal’s decision to join hands with the BJP, and the final exit came during the distribution ofassembly seats. Amarinder Singh, who wanted to contest from the Bathinda constituency, was denied the ticket as Badal preferred tonominate Chiranji Lal Garg (who later became a minister in the Punjab government) as the party nominee,” an excerpt from the book reads.
The book reveals that a police officer who was ‘privy’ to the above episode said Capt Amarinder was not keen to contest from his homeconstituency Patiala and preferred Bathinda for contesting the Assembly election.
According to the officer, he had conveyed Capt Amarinder's preference to Badal and the latter had agreed (in the morning) for this.
“Since (we did not have) mobile phones during those days, I could not (immediately) convey Badal’s message to Amarinder after which I spoketo Ravi Inder Singh (former Punjab assembly speaker), who rejected the idea that Amarinder could have agreed to Bathinda. I conveyed the same to Badal. Ravi Inder Singh got in touch with Amarinder in the evening to confirm Amarinder’s plan, but it was too late then. Badal by then had promised Chiranji Lal Garg, the ticket, and he not wanted to change the candidate”, the book says.
“This is just an excuse Badal is making because he had made up his mind not to give me a ticket. He considered me to be a threat to hisleadership in the coming days," claims Capt Amarinder in the book.
Following this, Capt Amarinder quit Akali Dal along with his supporters on 18 January 1997 alleging ‘dictatorship’ on the part of Badal. The book captures the 74-year-old erstwhile Patiala royal's roller-coaster ride, from his childhood days when he battled against mathematics, to his present-day political battles. Interestingly, Capt Amarinder's 75th birthday falls on March 11, the day results of the latest assembly elections will be announced.