Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh resigns from Congress, announces new party Punjab Lok Congress

NEW DELHI: Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Tuesday formally resigned from the Congress and also announced the name of his new party.
In his letter of resignation addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Amarinder Singh wrote that he is quitting in the "interest of my state and my country".
"In 2017, I led the party to a resounding victory winning 77 out of 117 seats in the Vidhan Sabha the highest ever since the state, in its present form, as created in 1966.Ever since I took over in 2017, I led the party to win 8 of the 13 Lok Sabha seats, against a nationwide sweeping BJP wave. We won all the corporations and municipal elections besides, two-thirds of the panchayat elections. We also won four of the five bye-elections to the Punjab Vidhan Sabha," Amarinder Singh wrote in his seven-page resignation letter.
Soon after quitting, Amarinder also announced the name of his party 'Punjab Lok Congress'. The former Punjab CM said his party's registration is pending Election Commission's approval.

Amarinder Singh had resigned as the Punjab chief minister in September amid a bitter power tussle with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
He had already announed that he would form his own party. The former Punjab CM also said that he was open to an alliance with the BJP if the ongoing issue of farmers' protest is resolved.
Punjab is slated to go through assembly polls in 2022. In 2017 assembly polls, Congress had won an absolute majority in the state by winning 77 seats and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years.
Aam Aadmi Party emerged as the second-largest party winning 20 seats in 117-member Punjab legislative assembly.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) could only manage to win 15 seats while the BJP secured 3 seats.