A day after former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh announced that he would launch his own party, he came in for strong criticism from key political parties in the State on Wednesday.

Hitting out at Capt. Amarinder Singh (retd.), Punjab’s Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa termed him an opportunist. He said Capt. Singh thought only about family and friends besides himself. “He (Capt. Amarinder) is an opportunist,” he said here.

Mr. Randhawa also blamed Capt. Singh for enhancement of powers of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Punjab.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said “It is now clear that Capt. Amarinder Singh was aligned with the BJP all along and backstabbed his party as well as Punjabis.”

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“The cosy relationship that Capt. Singh shared with the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also clear from the fact that despite being an opposition chief minister, the BJP never went after him like they did in the case of Mamata Bannerjee and others. The most the PM said about him was that he was a ‘swatantar fauji’ (independent soldier). Capt. Singh’s announcement that he would form his own party and align with the BJP is proof that the independent ‘fauji’ was always working in collusion with the BJP,” she said.

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The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha in a statement said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making every effort to prevent the Aam Aadmi Party from forming a government in Punjab. While the Bharatiya Janata Party, Akali Dal and the Congress are failing to stop the Aam Aadmi Party from forming a government in Punjab, the Prime Minister has fielded his beloved Capt. Amarinder Singh through a fourth party, to prevent the formation of the AAP government [next year].”