Chandigarh, Nov 29 (IANS) Former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress rebel Amarinder Singh on Monday called on Haryana Chief Minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar here.
The duo described the surprise meeting as 'courtesy call'.
After the meeting, Amarinder Singh told the media that his party will form the next government in Punjab along with the BJP and a breakaway Akali faction.
"There was no political interaction. It was a courtesy meeting. I had a nice cup of coffee with the Chief Minister," Smarinder Singh said.
On his former party colleagues joining his Punjab Lok Congress ahead of next year's Assembly elections in Punjab, Amarinder Singh said, "Wait for the time. Everything is going fine. People are very upbeat and our membership drive is going string.
"With our seat adjustment with the BJP and with (Sukhdev Singh) Dhindsa party, we will form the government."
Amarinder Singh had earlier said that any seat arrangement he made with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be subject to a resolution of the farmers' issues in their interest.
On November 2, Amarinder Singh had resigned from the Congress and sent a seven-page letter to interim party President Sonia Gandhi.
He named his party Punjab Lok Congress.
Amarinder Singh had quit as the Chief Minister in September after a power tussle with state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
It is the largest agricultural protest to take place in India and others from around the world have also joined in, tens of thousands of farmers have camped for months on major highways to New Delhi to oppose the three laws.
On Thursday night, Shah reached to Nadda's residence and meeting between the two leaders lasted for about an hour. The Shah-Nadda meeting came after a series of events. Earlier, on Wednesday, Amarinder met Shah.
The police identified the victim as hakeem Satnam Singh who was attacked at his clinic on Thursday in the limits of Faqirabad police station. A police official said that unknown assailants, whose number could not be ascertained, opened fire on the victim and managed to escape from the scene, the Dawn news report said.
Chief Secretary H.K. Diwedi held an emergency meeting with the District Magistrates and Superintendent of Polices of West and East Burdwan, Bankura, Birbhum, Hooghly, and Howrah on Thursday evening and took stock of the situation. After that the state government decided to deploy the Army in certain areas. However, NDRF teams have been kept on standby.
According to sources, Amarinder Singh will convene a meeting of leaders close to him in a few days to consider the formation of his new party, which will include all the leaders of the anti-Sidhu faction.
The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Khalid, Shriram Chaurasia, Zishan Ahmad, Vikas Kesarwani and Krishna Kumar. Inspector (Kareli) Anupam Sharma said the arrested persons had sold SIM cards to law-breakers at high prices after creating fake IDs.
