It’s pointless having a working president: Capt

Tuesday, 24/07/2012

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120724/punjab.htm#6

Far from getting ready to hang up his boots, Punjab Pradesh Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh says he will “get going” once he is assured by the party high command that he would remain in office.

In a candid talk with TNS, Amarinder said attempts were being made to give the impression that he was ready to quit office. “This is far from the truth. But it is up to party president Sonia Gandhi to take a final decision on the matter,” he said.

There are indications that the Amarinder camp is not ready to take Congress general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi’s statement (that he would continue in office till the corporation elections) as the final word on the subject. The civic poll ended on June 5. The Amarinder camp is buoyed by the fact that there is no consensus on the main contenders for the PCC post, Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa and Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Singh Brar.

When questioned on the issue, Amarinder said: “ Whenever such an issue will arise, the Congress president will call me. She knows my capability as well as my strong and weak points. I am in office till my president decides otherwise”.

Apparently referring to the Dasuya byelection, Amarinder admitted that the party had suffered some setback in the last one month. He, however, said the party was functioning normally. “We are holding a dharna tomorrow at Jalandhar against the punitive taxes being imposed by the SAD-BJP alliance”.

Amarinder made it clear that he was not in favour of having a working president under him. He said Punjab was a small state and it would not be feasible to have a president as well as a working president. “A better alternative would be to change the president if he is not up to the mark”.

The PCC chief said he had joined the Congress when it had 12 legislators in the state assembly in 1998. “We won the next elections and even now have 47 MLAs”. He said earlier in 2009 when he was made poll campaign committee incharge, the party had won eight of the 13 parliamentary seats. He said the loss in the assembly elections early this year was not due to “bad performance” but because of the 22 rebel candidates financed by the SAD. “But for this, we could have won”, he emphasised.

Amarinder said the Punjab Congress would take on the SAD-BJP Government on the the issue of “punitive taxes” and lack of investment in the state despite the claims by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal to the contrary.

He said he would be out of action for two weeks after July 28 as he was flying abroad. . “I have taken permission from the Congress president for the same”, he said.