The North News
Chandigarh, December 1
The Aam Aadmi Party has accused former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and the Badal family of being behind what it called a two-decade conspiracy to drain the state’s resources. Speaking at a press conference in Chandigarh, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said leaders “rejected by the people of Punjab” were attempting to re-enter state politics. He named former Congress chief minister Amarinder Singh, his relative and MP Simranjit Singh Mann, and former deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, alleging they represented a “politics of loot” that Punjab would “no longer tolerate”.
The remarks come as Amarinder Singh reignited speculation about a possible revival of the alliance between the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In an interview on an India Today podcast, Singh, now a BJP leader, said the party did not have the organisational strength to win the 2027 Assembly elections on its own. He argued the BJP “doesn’t understand the state” sufficiently and would need the SAD’s cadre and infrastructure to build a viable base. He suggested it would take the BJP “two to three elections” to establish an independent grassroots network in Punjab without such an alliance.
