'Will win 101%': Amarinder Singh after Punjab Lok Congress seals alliance with BJP ahead of Assembly polls

The BJP on Friday formally announced an alliance with Amarinder Singh's Punjab Lok Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections, a move that had been anticipated ever since the former chief minister quit the Congress last month.

Singh on Friday called on the BJP's Punjab incharge and Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat at his residence in Delhi. After the meeting, they officially announced the alliance.

"After seven rounds of talks, today I want to make it clear that the BJP and Amarinder Singh will contest Assembly elections in Punjab together and we are working together," Shekhawat told the media, Singh by his side.

Singh also formally announced the alliance in a tweet and said a poll plan is being chalked out.

Shekhawat said the details of seat-sharing will be announced at an "appropriate time".

"The alliance will definitely, 101 percent win the elections. Only seat-sharing talks are going on. We will see who will contest where - our criteria for seat selection is purely winnability," Singh told reporters.

Singh floated his own party Punjab Lok Congress days after he resigned as the chief minister and quit the Congress following his feud with Punjab Congress Chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

After parting ways with the Congress, the former chief minister had made it clear that he was ready to join hands with the BJP, but had one condition - the scrapping of the three farm laws at the core of a yearlong protest by farmers in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to repeal the controversial laws may have been driven partly by the BJP's plans for Punjab.

Earlier, the BJP had also broken its alliance with longstanding partner Shiromani Akali Dal over the issue of farm sector laws.

In an interview with CNN-News18 earlier, Singh had said that he wants the prime minister to campaign for him in the elections. Singh, who has openly criticised Congress after resigning from CM's chair, said he will campaign for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand polls.

"It will be easy for me to attack the Congress. I would want the PM to campaign for me and I will campaign for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand where there are Sikhs," he had said.

The alliance marks a big political reorientation in Punjab and adds the fourth corner to an increasingly intense contest that seemed to be heavily skewed towards the Congress just months ago.

The state's ruling Congress faces a tough challenge from Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Akali Dal's Sukhbir Badal has tied up with Mayawati's BSP.

Assembly elections in Punjab are expected to be held early next year.

With inputs from PTI

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