Somebody at the press conference shouted to Capt. Amarinder Singh that Sidhu had just tweeted that Amarinder Singh was a “BJP stooge.” This didn’t surprise Amarinder Singh any. “This fellow is nothing,” he quipped. When told that Sidhu has said that “you sold Punjab’s interests away”, ‘Capt. Sahab dismissed Sidhu with a flick and click of his fingers and said that scores of Congress leaders were waiting for the launch of his political party.

The Congress is out on a limb, said the ex-Congress Chief Minister of Punjab, adding that he cannot give a name for his proposed party just now because he didn’t know whether or not the Election Commission would accept a name he suggests. That is intriguing. What name does he want to give his party that will make the Election Commission baulk in reaction?

The Capt. is getting on in age, but he doesn’t seem to have had his fill of the chief ministership of Punjab. Maybe the ‘Maharaja’ in him does not believe in the concept of retirement. This ex-royal gives the impression he’s here to stay and Punjab is his to keep! Talk is that Capt. Amarinder Singh’s “party” will “wean Hindu voters" of the urban centres away from the Congress.

Amarinder’s political outfit will contest all 117 Punjab assembly seats. That is if it doesn’t have an arrangement with the BJP, which it might have to have if the Captain’s plans are anything to go by. There’s also “loose talk” that the BJP will open its coffers for the Captain’s party to fight the 2022 Punjab elections; meaning how can anyone expect a newborn political outfit to have the kind of money that’s required to contest “117 elections”.

Nobody asked Amarinder Singh if the “loose talk” had a spine. The ex-Chief Minister was more comfortable talking of his forthcoming meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Amarinder Singh said he would be discussing the farmers’ protests with Shah. Sidhu tweeted again – a second time in half an hour – attacking the Capt., for all the ills Punjab faced during Amarinder Singh’s long rule.

Navjot Singh Sidhu gives the impression he is rattled by the Capt’s “report card”, in which Amarinder Singh gave himself 100/100. Amarinder Singh spoke as if he was and had always been separate and divorced from the Congress throughout his tenure as Punjab CM. Power does things to people and divorced from power also does things to people. Captain Amarinder Singh is a prime example.

Amarinder Singh is 79 and he has spent 50 of the 79 with the Congress. He owes to the Congress all his happy moments, maybe more than what the Congress owes to him. Yet, here he is planning the defeat if not the demise of the Congress. What name he gives to “my party” will give us a clue. Maybe there will be a “Congress” component to it. Maybe he is being advised by certain “Congressi” who have a beef with the mother party.

Is anybody of the G-23 giving Capt. Amarinder Singh tips? Who knows? Manish Tewari lives in Punjab, Ghulam Nabi Azad is a hop, step away in Jammu & Kashmir. Shashi Tharoor could take the “cattle class” to Chandigarh from Thiruvananthapuram. Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma could undertake a road trip. All these Congress leaders are in the disgruntled Group of 23.

The thrust of the matter is anything is possible when 23 wise old men get into a huddle. Capt. Amarinder Singh’s body language and “confidence” suggests he has support. There appears like he has the ear of Congress leaders who feel they have been evicted from the Congress high-command. There are plenty of Congress leaders with a grouse. More of them after Sonia Gandhi more or less indicated that the first claim on the Congress remained with the “family.” If the Congress retains Punjab in 2022, wins Uttarakhand and makes inroads in Uttar Pradesh, the G-23 can cast themselves out to pasture. Their role in the Congress, already curtailed, will be reduced to nil. Capt. Amarinder Singh is the last hope for the old guard of the Grand Old Party. (IPA Service)