Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has already sounded the poll bugle in Punjab and will contest the upcoming assembly elections in 2022 from his family stronghold of Patiala.
The former CM had floated his own political party, Punjab Lok Congress, earlier this month and vowed to contest all 117 assembly seats in the state. He had earlier even said he is open to forming an alliance with the BJP for the 2022 elections.
“I will contest from Patiala. Patiala is with us for 400 years and I am not going to leave it due to Sidhu,” Singh announced on his Facebook page, as he targeted his rival and Congress’ Punjab unit president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
By “400 years”, Singh invoked the legacy of his royal family, which ruled the erstwhile princely state of Patiala. The assembly seat was won by him in the last assembly elections, defeating BJP’s General (retd) JJ Singh by a margin of over 60,000 votes.
Cumulatively, Singh has represented Patiala in the state assembly four times in his political career, whereas, his wife was an MLA from the seat for three years between 2014 and 2017.