Punjab's former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has criticised his successor Charanjit Singh Channi as someone who "tried to backstab me". In an interview with NDTV, Amarinder Singh, who broke away from the Congress to form his own party, said Mr Channi is not an efficient leader and "fears me".
Amarinder Singh resigned as Chief Minister late last month after a tumultuous series of events in the Punjab Congress that prompted him to mince no words in criticising party chief Sonia Gandhi.
"Channi can say whatever he likes to, he fears me. He tried to stab me in the back to become the Chief Minister," Amarinder Singh told NDTV today.
"He (Mr Channi) is not doing his job. He is touring the state. I have dealt with at least 14 general secretaries. This man (Harish Chaudhary) has been sitting in very meeting where he has no right to be in. He is running the Punjab government, not Channi," the former chief minister said.
"I am against the very word Dalit Chief Minister. He is a capable boy. Whether he is good administrator or not time will tell. I think India should grow out of this thing if a person is Dalit or Jat, etc," Amarinder Singh said, referring to the Congress appointing the state's first Dalit Sikh Chief Minister.
Amarinder Singh had stepped down from the top post after a year-long bitter feud with Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and a section of party MLAs. The party, he had said, had humiliated him.
While handing over his resignation letter to the Congress, he made a series of questions and accusations against the party and its individual leaders - including Sonia Gandhi, her son and daughter.
Advertisement"You probably thought that if this third world emergency imposition kind of circus that happened in June 1975 was not enacted, I would have whisked the MLAs to some resort... Despite knowing me for the better part of my 52 years in Public life and that too at a deeply personal level you never understood me or my character. You thought I was getting on in years and should be put to pasture," Amarinder Singh wrote in a parting letter, singling out Sonia Gandhi.
The former Chief Minister will meet with BJP chief JP Nadda on Saturday to work out a possible tie-up for the Punjab election between the BJP and his new party, Punjab Lok Congress.
