Cong 'chargesheet' on govt failures in Nov Zero tolerance to indiscipline, reiterates Charak

Monday, 03/10/2011

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20111003/punjab.htm#1

Congress' Punjab affairs in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak today said though all party workers had the right to apply for a ticket for the coming assembly elections, winnability of a candidate would be the deciding factor.

Charak, who was in the city to attend a function at the DAV Institute of Engineering and Technology, said party ticket would be allotted strictly on merit.

Denying there was any dissidence or factionalism in the party's state unit, he said the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee's (PPCC) tough posture towards indiscipline seemed to have worked.

"No indiscipline will be tolerated in future too…. The Congress is a party with a liberal outlook and every worker has the right to aspire for a ticket, though the list of candidates will be finalised by the party high command. Once candidates are announced and ticket allocated, the workers cease to have this liberty and right. The Congress workers have the peculiar characteristic that after the distribution of ticket, they start working for the finalised candidate unitedly."

Taking on the ruling regime, Charak said the Congress would present a detailed "chargesheet" regarding the misdeeds of the SAD-BJP government by next month. He was accompanied by senior Congress leaders of the Doaba region, including Amarjit Samra, Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, Chaudhary Santokh Singh and hotelier-turned-politician Gautam Kapoor.

Also, he said it was the Congress that had passed the Lok Pal Bill in 1995 to curb corruption.

On why the Congress had not so far initiated its poll campaign even as the SAD-BJP coalition had sounded the bugle, the PPCC in-charge said the party was finalising its proposed "Parivartan Yatra", which would be organised by November-end.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi would be the star campaigners for the party in Punjab…. In fact, the SAD chief is going from village to village seeking apology from the people for the four-and-a-half-year misrule of his party. They are organising Sangat Darshans and projecting Centre-sponsored schemes as their own," he said.

About Rahul Gandhi's insistence for more representation to youth in the party set-up, Charak said the party "definitely needed young blood to take charge but at the same time the role of the old guard was a must."