Bajwa suggests poll pact with secular forces
Wednesday, 25/12/2013
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20131225/punjab.htm#21
New Delhi : Bracing for the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee today suggested a pre-poll alliance with secular forces in the state to take on the SAD-BJP alliance which bagged five of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in 2009.
At a crucial strategy meeting with CP Joshi this evening , Congress general secretary who is in charge of screening candidates for the 2014 parliamentary elections, the Punjab Pradesh Congress committee (PPCC) president, Partap Singh Bajwa, is said to have laid out an alliance plan as well as the ticket distribution strategy.
Top sources in the party told The Tribune that Bajwa had proposed a pre-election alliance with the Left parties, the People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) to counter “fundamental” forces in Punjab.
The state Congress president is said to have told the top AICC functionary that the sitting Congress MPs in Punjab faced local anti-incumbency and that shifting some of them to new seats could bolster the party’s chances at the hustings.
The party is planning to field fresh faces on the five seats that it lost in 2009.
Sources said it might change the seats of some sitting MPs. The age factor would be considered while allotting seats.
This means Sukhdev Singh Libra, MP from Fatehgarh Sahib (SC), who abstained from the crucial trust vote against the UPA Government over the Indo-US nuke deal, could be reconsidered.
“There was a suggestion to change the seats of two or three parliamentarians to buck local anti-incumbency, as seen in the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh state elections against sitting MLAs,” the sources said.
Top AICC sources said the PPCC president had argued for a secular alliance on the basis of the 59 per cent vote share the secular factions had obtained in 2009 as against 41 per cent that went to the SAD-BJP alliance.
This was the first poll strategy meeting of the state Congress. When contacted, Joshi declined to say anything.
Ticket distribution
To buck local anti-incumbency, as was seen in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh elections, PPCC chief wants some MPs shifted to new seats
Cong may field fresh faces on five seats that it lost to the SAD-BJP alliance in 2009
Party to consider age factor while allotting seats
