Capt, Bajwa meet party bosses

Friday, 21/08/2015

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NEW DELHI: The squabbling in the Punjab Congress once again reached the doorsteps of the party high command on Thursday with both state unit head Partap Singh Bajwa and former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh articulating their views on the crisis in the party.

Though both Amarinder and Bajwa were tightlipped about what transpired in their deliberations with the top Congress leadership, sources said the ongoing tussle between the two and its impact on the revival of the party in Punjab figured prominently in the meetings.

In his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Amarinder once again insisted on immediate replacement of Bajwa either by him or his nominee. However, the leadership remained non-committal to his suggestion.

During his previous meeting with Sonia and Rahul on June 8, Amarinder had suggested that if the leadership is disinclined to hand over the reins of the state unit to him, it should replace Bajwa with Sunil Jakhar, who is Congress legislature party leader in Punjab. He had further proposed that he should be given the charge of campaign committee and senior leader Lal Singh be appointed as the new CLP leader.

Congress sources said the dilemma before the leadership is that if it accepts Amarinder’s proposal there are chances that similar voices could emerge from different parts of the country also and it would then be difficult to contain the power struggle in those states.

But leaders close to Amarinder claim that the patience of the former chief minister is running out and if the Congress high command does not hand him the party reins in next few months, he could form his own party ahead of the 2017 assembly elections. “Bajwa has failed to instill confidence among the workers and his continuation will make the party weaker,” argued an Amarinder loyalist. On the other hand, the Bajwa camp is confident that Amarinder’s exit would not have any impact on the party’s revival plan or poll prospects in Punjab.

“But a decision has to be taken sooner or later. The leadership needs to bite the bullet and take the call of either giving him the charge or seeing his exit. Delaying the treatment to a life-threatening disease will prove detrimental to party’s interests,” a leader close to Bajwa said. Bajwa also met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and apprised him of his upcoming programmes.