AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, in a tweet, said: “Hon’ble Congress President has accepted the resignation of Captain Amarinder Singh from the primary membership of Indian National Congress”.

Amarinder had Tuesday resigned from the Congress, accusing party president Sonia Gandhi and Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of hatching a “midnight conspiracy” to oust him. The 79-year-old leader had also lashed out at Sidhu calling him an “acolyte of the Pakistani deep state”, and terming former AICC incharge for Punjab Harish Rawat as a “dubious individual”.

Punjab ministers Pargat Singh and Amarinder Singh Raja Warring hit out at the former CM over his party and bonhomie with the BJP.
Pargat, the Sports and Education Minister, attacked Amarinder over his new party – Punjab Lok Congress – saying it is neither for “Punjabis” nor for “Lok”, and certainly not the “Congress”.

Warring, who heads the transport department, targeted the former CM for attacking Sidhu over his alleged Pakistan links and the veteran leader’s relations with the BJP. He said Amarinder in his letter to Sonia Gandhi mentioned about Sidhu hugging the Pakistan Army chief and that country’s PM during his visit there.

“As U now r ‘seat sharing’ with anti-farmer BJP here r few pictures of ur new found BumChums,” tweeted Warring tagging photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting the then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan in 2015.

Party MP GS Aujla asked Amarinder to reveal the names of all those involved in illegal sand mining. “Not just me, Punjabis of entire world expect you will reveal names of ministers, political hunch men, bureaucrats & police officials responsible for drug spread & loot by sand & other mafias. And frankly do not form another party if u still have reservations,” tweeted Aujla.

Retired IPS officer Mohd Mustafa, who is also Sidhu’s chief strategic advisor, too took to the micro-blogging site to “expose the turn of events” under which he was ignored for the post of DGP that eventually went to Dinkar Gupta. Mustafa said that not getting the post of DGP was never an issue for him as “it is the prerogative of the CM” to have a state police chief of his choice.

“What was and still remains unacceptable to a ‘solider in me; is the way, a ‘compromised’ CAS (Capt Amarinder Singh) in collusion with Arora (former DGP Suresh Arora), a phoney character, every inch and every ounce of his being and his ‘pet’ (former DGP) Dinkar (Gupta) trampled upon my sense of self respect so integral to my very ‘being’, by plotting my ouster from UPSC panel,” Mustafa said in a note he posted on Twitter.

The retired IPS claimed he trusted Amarinder despite “repeated” and “to the point warnings” from a top CMO bureaucrat. “Had I acted upon what I was being constantly warned about, I would have met the Prime Minister or Mr Amit Shah, then BJP chief, or at a lower run, then UPSC chairman who I had worked with during my SSP years. And I have not an iota of doubt, they would not have allowed this to happen, given my professional and nationalist credentials that put me ‘light miles’ above my dwarf competitors. All the games happened at the level of a union minister who was hands in glove with Arora and CAS,” Mustafa further said..

He claimed that the UPSC chairman, when he met a day after the commission’s decision on Punjab DGP panel, was shocked to learn of his ouster from the panel of names and “suggested” an immediate protest petition. But, Mustafa said, he chose the judicial route. “What shocked the CMO bureaucrat and me the most, was the part played by the supposed conscience keeper of the state bureaucracy, Karan (Avtar Singh),” Mustafa said, adding, “He was given a “neat script” 8 pm, CM residence, February 1, 2019 by CAS himself in the conniving presence of Arora, an hour after Razia (his wife and minister Razia Sultana) and I had met the CM, same house, same room, same sofas, same subject. The CMO bureaucrat informed immediately thereafter, “your grave dug, only the burial rituals to be held in UPSC premises 4th February”.

Mustafa said minutes after the UPSC meeting, he knew the “exact details of the farce proceedings” and the “outcome thereof” even as media advisor to Amarinder Singh, Raveen Thukral “dutifully kept lying and misleading” the media.