With throne goes army of Bajwa loyalists
Saturday, 28/11/2015
http://www.indiapress.org/gen/news.php/The_Tribune/
Gurdaspur : Outgoing president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) Partap Singh Bajwa has not only lost his throne but his army of loyalists is also dwindling fast.
Bajwa remained MP from Gurdaspur from 2009 to 2014. He defeated three-time MP Vinod Khanna by 6,000 votes in 2009. Khanna managed to win back the seat by 1.36 lakh votes in 2014.
Bajwa has virtually lost all support, barring that of his wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa, a sitting MLA from Qadian in his home turf. This parliamentary constituency comprises nine Assembly seats out of which five are represented by Congress legislators while three are held by the BJP. Two seats are represented by SAD legislators.
Out of the five Congress MLAs, three—Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa (Dera Baba Nanak), Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa (Fatehgarh Churian) and Ashwani Sekhri (Batala)—have been staunch Amarinder supporters. Even during the Bajwa’s tenure as the PPCC president, they had made it clear that they would remain with Amarinder. The fourth legislator—Aruna Chowdhury (Dinanagar)—was once aligned with the Bajwa camp, but she quickly switched loyalties once she saw her political mentor was fast losing support and credibility.
Initially, she was a fence-sitter but some months into Bajwa’s tenure as the Punjab Congress chief she switched sides and could be seen on the stage during rallies addressed by the former CM.
The Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency comprises three main towns—Gurdaspur, Pathankot and Batala. “Bajwa has been marginalised in all three towns. Days after he was appointed the state Congress president, he appointed his sibling Fateh Jung Bajwa and his supporter Sukhpal Khaira as PPCC spokespersons that angered many. Later, he made some more appointments that did not go down well with his supporters.,” said a former Congress minister.
