Amarinder Singh to contest 2022 Punjab Assembly polls from stronghold Patiala
The former chief minister has represented the constituency four times.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Sunday said that he will contest the 2022 Assembly elections in the state from Patiala, his family bastion.
Singh has represented the Patiala Assembly constituency four times – in 2002, 2007, 2012 and 2017, PTI reported. Preneet Kaur, his wife, is a Lok Sabha MP from Patiala.
“I will fight elections from Patiala only,” Singh announced in a Facebook post. “Patiala has been with us for 400 years. I will not leave it because of [Navjot] Sidhu.”
Sidhu, the Punjab Congress chief, has an ancestral house in Patiala and there is speculation that he will contest the elections from there, India Today reported.
Singh had stepped down as the chief minister of Punjab in September after a bitter feud with Sidhu. Since then, Singh has repeatedly criticised the Congress for humiliating him.
Days after resigning from the top post, Singh had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi, setting off speculation that he would join the BJP.
But he announced the name of his own political party – Punjab Lok Congress – in November. Singh had said that his party would contest all the 117 seats in the Punjab Assembly elections.