Amarinder is back as Cong captain

Saturday, 28/11/2015

http://myphotos8820.zenfolio.com/p28947600/h6e8bf2a6#h622fcb00

CHANDIGARH: Bowing to the demands of Captain Amarinder Singh, the Congress’ “reluctant” deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, party president Sonia Gandhi on Friday appointed him as the Punjab Congress chief, a day after accepting the resignation of his predecessor, Partap Singh Bajwa.

Capt Amarinder Singh celebrating with supporters after he was appointed president of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee in New Delhi on Friday.

The party high command’s announcement led to celebrations by Amarinder supporters across Punjab, with several of his loyalists rushing to New Delhi to congratulate him.

While bringing the Captain back at the helm, the party has also given a clear message that the faction-ridden state Congress should work as a team. The state unit revamp has the stamp of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the party, breaking with tradition, has appointed a senior vice-president of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC), MLA Lal Singh, who enjoys close proximity to Rahul.

While keeping a Jat Sikh (Amarinder) as the party’s face, the Congress has tried to woo Dalits and Hindus by putting its social engineering formula into action. For this, it has sounded the poll bugle almost a year ahead of the 2017 assembly elections by announcing the state’s campaign committee. Senior party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni, a Hindu, has been appointed as its chairman and MLA Sadhu Singh Dharamsot, a Scheduled Caste (SC), as the vice-chairman. Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, another Rahul confidant, has been made the campaign committee’s convener, in line with Rahul’s strategy to groom youth leaders for the future.

RELENTLESS WAR ON BAJWA
The former Punjab chief minister flexed his way to the state Congress presidency by waging a relentless war on Bajwa, openly seeking his removal and challenging his authority through parallel show of strengths. Rahul, who had named Amarinder as the CM candidate in the run-up to the 2012 assembly polls, was not willing to pass the baton back to him after two back-to-back poll drubbings for the party under the latter.

But after the Captain upped the ante by questioning his (Rahul’s) leadership and even hinted at breaking away from the party, realpolitik prevailed as the Congress hopes to script its turnaround story from Punjab.

Rahul held parleys with party MLAs, district presidents and other state leaders, followed by three meetings with Amarinder in the past two months, before he agreed to replace Bajwa and bring the former CM back as the state chief president, provided he (Amarinder) took other senior state leaders along and the party projected a picture of unity.

After his elevation as the state unit chief, Amarinder thanked Sonia and Rahul for reposing faith in him to lead the party in Punjab, while underscoring the theme song of “unity” behind the revamp. “I will take everybody along and the Congress will fight the elections with complete unity and full strength,” he said in his statement. Later, talking to HT, he welcomed the appointment of a vice-president and the campaign committee, saying that he could not cover all 12,400 villages of Punjab alone. “We need to work as a team as people need the personal touch and elections are won through meeting people,” he added.

WHY AMARINDER?
Resurrected in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections by defeating BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley from Amritsar, Amarinder, however, openly spoke about his reluctance to be in central politics and his desire to return to state politics.

He is seen as the party’s best bet to take on not just the ruling Akali-BJP alliance but also the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has announced Punjab as its next destination after Delhi and had won all its four seats in the state during the Lok Sabha polls, eating into the anti-incumbency votes as well as the traditional Panthic and rural vote banks of the Akalis.

As a former CM, he also enjoys the support of a majority of the MLAs and district unit presidents. He remains the party’s tallest leader in the state, and also the most charismatic. Though Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Sunil Jakhar was also told to resign on Thursday to make way for the revamp, the new CLP leader, according to party sources, would be announced after a meeting of the legislature party next month. There are reports that Jakhar, a Captain loyalist, may return to the post as Amarinder is keen on his retention. Other front-runners are MLA Charanjit Singh, another SC, and former CM Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. The party may also suitably adjust Bajwa in the All India Congress Committee as general secretary.