NEW DELHI: Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh today attacked the Congress Party, saying that its panic-stricken after mishandling the affairs in Punjab and that is why it was spreading lies against him, in an alleged bid to cover up its mismanagement in the state.

The former CM was referring to the claims of leader Randeep Surjewala that 78 of the 79 Punjab Congress MLAs had written to the party leadership seeking Amarinder Singh's ouster. 

Singh pointed out that just a day earlier, Harish Rawat in charge of the state had said that 43 MLAs had written to the high command on the issue, "Next, they will claim that 117 MLAs wrote to them against me," he said.

He said that the 'conflicting numbers' of MLAs who had demanded his ousted by two senior party leaders showed that the party has become imbued with former president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Navjot Singh Sidhu's sense of comic theatrics. "It's a comedy of errors," he added.

According to Singh the 43-odd MLAs who had signed the letter against him had been forced to do so under duress especially by the Sidhu's camp and claimed that the people were still with him. 

"Considering the Congress’ recent electoral successes in the state under my leadership clearly, the people of Punjab have not lost trust in me, as claimed by Surjewala," Singh said.

The Punjab Congress has been in a political deadlock for some time ever since the party leadership decided to first appoint Sidhu as the state party chief and then replacing Singh with Charanjit Singh Channi as a Dalit face.

After meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval Singh announced on Thursday that he would be quitting the party however he also added that he would not be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

Interestingly days after Channi's appointment, Sidhu himself resigned as the president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) with differences over certain appointments.