Infighting focus of Cong meet
Sunday, 27/10/2013
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=84755&boxid=57452&uid=&dat=2013-10-27
Chandigarh : The issue of infighting in the party again took centre-stage at the Punjab Congress meet called by the party’s state affairs incharge, Shakeel Ahmed, in New Delhi on Saturday.
Party leaders from the state were quite vociferous in objecting to Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa calling a parallel meet two days ahead of Congress Legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar’s scheduled meet on Monday. Terming it an unhealthy and unprecedented trend, some leaders said that such actions would only damage the already weakened party structure.
Expressing their worries in front of Shakeel Ahmed and Harish Chaudhary, the party MLAs also mentioned that the incidents of infighting among the top leadership of the state, exposed at times, were making them unable to face the public in their respective constituencies.
Taking a serious note of the issue, Ahmed directed the state seniors to avoid confrontation and work for strengthening the party, mentioning categorically that it was not possible till they all get united.
Though Jakhar was reportedly not much vocal, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Lal Singh, Charanjit Singh Channi and Ashwani Sekhri were quite vocal on the issues.
On his part, Bajwa tried to explain his position by saying the move was not driven by any ill-motive, but was compliance with the directions of the high command. Replying to an MLA who objected to his action of ignoring the CLP leader before calling the meeting, Bajwa maintained that he could not even think of holding an MLAs’ meet without Jakhar. However, finding some leaders not ready to buy his version, Ahmed took the matter in his own hands.
He declared that it was he who had directed Bajwa to call a meeting of senior MLAs to discuss issues to be taken up in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha and to decide the venue and date of the convention to be held on the Food Security Act.
Also rejecting reports citing different reasons behind shifting the meeting venue from Chandigarh to Delhi, Ahmed said that he was not able to attend the meeting at Chandigarh due to paucity of time, so he asked Bajwa to shift the venue to Delhi.
Later, the party leaders decided to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi to apprise them of the delay in paddy procurement and non-payment of minimum support price to the farmers, besides the problem of discolouring of the grains.
It was learnt that the state leadership could get the appointment with Sonia Gandhi for Sunday.
Besides Bajwa and Jakhar, former chief minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Lal Singh, O P Soni, Tarlochan Singh Soond, Charanjit Singh Channi, Ashwani Sekhri, Jagmohan Singh Kang, Brahm Mohindra, Kuljit Singh Nagra, Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, Amrik Singh Dhillon, Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa and Rakesh Pandey were other party leaders from Punjab who attended the meet.
Punjab Congress leaders at the meeting with Shakeel Ahmed held in New Delhi on Saturday.DP
Former PPCC chief Capt Amarinder Singh was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting, even though he too had been directed by the high command to attend the event, aimed at ironing out differences between the party leaders.
Party insiders said that while skipping the party meet, Capt Amarinder cited his scheduled court appearance in Mohali as the reason, but he did not appear in the court as well.
