Eight months after the Congress’ departure, Amarinder Singh plans to merge with the BJP

The former chief minister, who is 89 years old, is in London for back surgery. After his return the next week, he’ll probably merge his Punjab Lok Congress party with the BJP.

After his operation on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chatted with Amarinder Singh.

Amarinder Singh, or “Captain”, quit the Congress, his party of five decades, after he was replaced as Chief Minister last year.

Mr Singh, in a letter to party leader Sonia Gandhi, said he had been humiliated thrice by the leadership and couldn’t take it anymore. The 89-year-old also warned that he still had politics in him yet, and that he was not about to walk into the sunset.

When he first announced his own party, the three-time chief minister denied he was joining the BJP, as many other unhappy Congress officials had done in recent years. He ran in the Punjab elections in April and May alongside the BJP.

The Captain was unsuccessful in his bid for the Patiala seat and even lost his deposit.

Sunil Jakhar, the former head of the Punjab Congress, is one of several top Congress figures who have defected from the party and joined the BJP in Punjab since the election. Preneet Kaur, however, continues to represent Patiala as a Congress MP.

Former Union minister Preneet Kaur is said to have persuaded the BJP to run her daughter Jai Inder Kaur for her Lok Sabha seat.