Manish Tewari backs Amarinder on PPCC leadership issue

Sunday, 11/01/2015

http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/politics/manish-tewari-backs-amarinder-on-ppcc-leadership-issue/28608.html

New Delhi : A day after former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh raised the pitch for the change of leadership in the state Congress, voices favouring him grew louder today. Former Union Minister Manish Tewari has backed his claim to the position of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president.

“Amarinder Singh is the tallest leader in Punjab and that has been so for a while. There are no two ways about it. Nobody knows the state of Punjab like he does,” former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told The Tribune today.

Backing a demand for change of leadership in the state, Tewari said while the prerogative to effect that change rests with party president Sonia Gandhi, the fact that someone as senior as Amarinder has articulated his position on early change of guard in the state needed to be considered.

“If someone of the stature of Amarinder Singh articulates his point of view on the subject of leadership in Punjab, it needs to be given a due consideration. He has after all spoken after taking a view on the political situation in the state,” Tewari said rallying behind Amarinder as the choice for the state Congress leadership, which is with Partap Singh Bajwa at present.

The former minister said Amarinder had expressed a point of view both publicly and privately. He must have done so after talking to a vast section of the leadership in Punjab. “Senior leaders and legislators from Punjab have repeatedly spoken about the challenges the Congress faces in the state and what needs to be done to address those challenges,” Tewari said.

To a pointed question about whether he thought Amarinder would be a good choice for replacing Bajwa at this moment in time, Tewari said, “Amarinder Singh has been in state politics for over four decades now. He knows Punjab more than anybody else. He is our tallest leader in the state.”

Pro-Amarinder Singh voices are emerging even as he prepares for a massive show of strength at his Moti Bagh Palace residence in Patiala. Around 125 persons, including sitting MLAs, district presidents, former legislators and ministers, have been invited by him for lunch and to discuss the future of Congress in context of the BJP distancing from the Akalis.

The Congress on its part is adopting a “wait and watch” policy with the high command not keen on being seen as acting under pressure from dissidents. The apprehensions of the party’s central leadership are that if they concede to the anti-leadership demands in one state, similar demands may rise in other states, too.