Rahul’s Moga rally cancelled as Bajwa’s fate hangs in balance
Wednesday, 18/03/2015
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NEW DELHI: The Punjab Congress has abandoned its plans of holding a farmers’ rally later this month in view of party vicepresident Rahul Gandhi’s sabbatical and the uncertainty over the continuation of Partap Singh Bajwa as the state unit chief.
Bajwa had last month announced that Rahul will address a kisan and mazdoor rally at Moga on March 29. The rally was billed as a launchpad for Rahul’s nationwide agitation against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government’s policies on farm, land and labour reforms, issues the Congress thinks will help it reconnect with eroding traditional support base.
Congress sources say the rally has now been called off and a fresh date could be announced only after Rahul’s return from sabbatical and once there is clarity on Bajwa’s fate.
Rahul had earlier skipped a party protest against the Centre’s land acquisition bill at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar on February 25. His absence was also felt at the party agitation and “padyatra” from Bhatta Parsaul that started on Friday and culminated on Monday at Jantar Mantar.
The proposed rally at Moga was also touted as a show of strength for Bajwa in the wake of his long-running tussle with Captain Amarinder Singh.
While Amarinder claimed that the Congress graph was on the downslide under Bajwa’s leadership, the state unit chief hit back blaming him for the party’s two successive defeats in 2007 and 2012 assembly elections.
The bitter feud prompted the Congress high command to rush party general secretary Shakeel Ahmad to Punjab to prepare a report on the leadership issue after taking feedback from all factions. During their meetings with Ahmad, sitting and former legislators apart from other leaders are learned to have told him that any delay in the change of guard in the Punjab Congress would prove “disastrous”.
