Punjab former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday refuting reports of backend talks with the Congress said the time for rapprochement is over.
"I'm grateful to Sonia Gandhi ji for her support but will not stay in Congress now," Capt Amarinder Singh's media advisor Raveen Thukral quoted the senior leader as saying.
Further talking about his new party launch, he said, "I will soon launch my own party and will hold talks for seat sharing with BJP, breakaway Akali factions and others for Punjab elections once farmers' issue is resolved." "I want to build strong collective force in interest of Punjab and its farmers," he added.
His clarification comes days after he announced of launching his new party and said that it would be open for seat sharing with Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the assembly polls in the state in 2022.
Meanwhile, Amarinder Singh's meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the farm laws was postponed on Thursday. The meeting between both leaders could not take place as Shah was to leave for Gujarat, said a source close to the former Punjab CM.
Singh was supposed to meet the Union home minister to discuss possible solutions to the ongoing farmers' stir against the Centre's three farm laws.
Singh had said he had met the Union home minister thrice in the past on farmers' issues.
Singh, who had faced an unceremonious exit from the state government, had said any seat arrangement that he might make with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be subject to the resolution of the farmers' issue in their interest.
Singh had earlier also met Shah in Delhi and had discussed the prolonged farmers' stir with him while urging him to resolve the crisis urgently with the repeal of the three farm laws.
A large number of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and UP, have been camping at the Delhi borders since November 26 last year, demanding the repeal of the three new farm laws.
