Congress leader Jagmeet Brar with the family of a Congress worker at Mann village on Sunday. DP

Monday, 27/05/2013

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=70897&boxid=58443&uid=&dat=2013-05-27

Muktsar : Infighting in the Punjab Congress has once again come to fore, this time exposed with All India Congress Working Committee member Jagmeet Singh Brar showing his ‘leadership qualities’.

PPCC Chief Partap Singh Bajwa had announced his schedule to tour village Mann in Muktsar on Monday with a specific mention of visiting the Congress workers who were booked for the poll violence took place outside the polling station in the village on the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections day.

However, Brar, who hails from Muktsar district itself, reached the village on Sunday, a day in advance apparently aimed at displaying his ‘leadership qualities’.

Meanwhile, he also announced to carry out a protest march taking 5,000 Congressmen along from Muktsar to Mann village on June 1.

It is pertinent to mention that on May 19, nine vehicles were torched and damaged outside the polling station in the village by mob, later identified as a group of Congressmen. The provocation as learnt was the entry of some SAD activists inside the polling station, which the Congressmen took as an attempt to captures the booths there.

Later, taking it as the biggest violent incident of the poll day, Police booked 25 congress workers by name and about 100 were mentioned as unidentified. However, no case was registered against the SAD workers who were accused of capturing the booth. Irked Congressmen had also held protest outside the Lambi police station on the very next day.

Now, the state chief of the party wanted to see his men personally with some plans to encourage them for showing spark and also to tell them that he would stand beside them through thick and thin.

However, as his plan was published in the media on Sunday, Brar was quick to mark his presence in the village, which the observers found as a lack of coordination and race for credit amongst the party leaders.

The visit also exposed the weight of Brar as during his visit to the village no senior Congress leader, except some local activists, accompanied him to inquire about the partymen who were booked in Police case.

It is worth mentioning here that earlier when Capt Amarinder Singh was the PPCC chief, then too the differences between Brar and him were quite prevalent. The two used to share stages quite rarely. The Sunday’s incident has again exposed that things have hardly changed in the party though the guard has changed hands.

Absence of the Congress leaders of the constituency especially Maheshinder Singh Badal and Gurmeet Singh Khuddian was a clear signal to Jagmeet Brar about his status in the party.

Speaking to media persons Brar said he was upset to see the state of affairs in the state as the Congressmen were being falsely implicated in cases like one at Mann village. He alleged that Police were conducting raids at the Congressmen’s houses all on the behest of Akali dal.

“If things do not get changed I will not hesitate to sit on dharna outside the Chief Minister Pakash Singh Badal’s residence in Badal village, located just three kilometres,” said Brar.