Amarinder manages to nip rebellion in bud

Thursday, 18/04/2019

https://www.brightpunjabexpress.com/index.php/2019/04/17/amarinder-manages-to-nip-rebellion-in-bud/

Chandigarh : For last two days, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has been spending most of his time in the Congress Bhawan in Sector 15 here, trying to quell the rebellion caused after the distribution of tickets for the General Elections.

With so many aspirants and limited options, it was a tough task for the party to screen and select the candidates for the 13 constituencies. The party is yet to announce candidates for two constituencies, Bathinda and Ferozepur, and is apparently waiting for the opposition Shiromani Akali Dal to announce the candidates first. Even in these two constituencies the party will have to choose from amongst multiple aspirants.

Today, the Chief Minister presided over a meeting of the party leaders and legislators from the Anandpur Sahib constituency. The selection of candidates for this constituency became a bone of contention for the party’s leadership as there were two powerful contenders, Manish Tewari and Capt Sandeep Sandhu, Political Secretary to the Chief Minister.

Since the Chief Minister unequivocally supported Tewari, a section of the leadership that favoured Sandhu, apparently fanned some rebellion, which has already been quelled now. Besides Sandhu, Jagmohan Singh Kang, senior leader and former minister, was keen to get the ticket for his son. Initially, he had also expressed reservations about Tewari. However, he held a meeting with the Chief Minister yesterday and has already started the campaign in his assembly segment Kharar.

Yesterday, the Chief Minister presided over a meeting of the leaders from Faridkot area who were opposed to the nomination of Mohammad Sadiq as party candidate from there. All the leaders, including Gurpreet Singh Kangar, Kikki Dhillon, Darshan Singh Brar, Harjot Kamal, Kaka Lohgarh and others assured the Chief Minister that they will ensure Sadiq’s win from there.

Later in the day, Capt Amarinder met a delegation of the Valmiki and Mazhabi Sikh leaders, who are annoyed over being, what they say, denied their due in the Congress. The delegation was led by veteran Valmiki leader Dr Raj Kumar Verka. The Valmiki leaders were aggrieved that none of their representatives was in the government. They were demanding at least two seats from the four reserved parliamentary seats in Punjab. They cited Akali Dal example saying, it had given two tickets to Mazhabi Sikh leaders, including Charanjit Singh Atwal from Jalandhar and Gulzar Singh Ranike from Faridkot.

The Chief Minister assured the delegation that he would watch their interests when the chairmanships are announced by the government after the elections.

The Chief Minister is being assisted by his old aide and colleague Laal Singh, who besides being Chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board, is also senior vice-president of the PCC. Singh has earlier worked as acting president during 2009 General Elections when Mohinder Singh Kaypee, the then PCC president, contested elections from Jalandhar.

Normally, the Congress would appoint an acting PCC president in case the sitting PCC president contested elections. However, the practice was discontinued in 2014 when Partap Singh Bajwa contested from Gurdaspur while being the PCC president. The party did not appoint any acting president then.

This time also, while PCC president Sunil Jakhar is busy fighting Gurdaspur, there has been no replacement as the acting president. But Laal Singh is performing that role while being senior vice-president and helping the Chief Minister to quell the rebellion.