Jakhar, Lal Singh in running for PPCC president
Wednesday, 15/03/2017
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/politics/jakhar-lal-singh-in-running-for-ppcc-president/377192.html
Chandigarh : The Punjab Congress has begun an exercise to identify the next PPCC president. The incumbent chief, Capt Amarinder Singh, will take oath as the Chief Minister of the state on Thursday.
It is being felt that appropriate representation should be given to non-Jat leaders. “Since a Jat Sikh (Amarinder) will be the CM, the party should try to strike a balance to give representation to other communities like the Dalits and Other Backward Classes (OBC)”, said a senior leader.
Names of several senior leaders are doing the rounds. These include PPCC senior vice-president Lal Singh, vice-president Sunil Jakhar and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu.
With the party staging a comeback in the 117-member Punjab Assembly after a decade under the leadership of Amarinder, the latter will have his say in the selection of the new president.
“It is premature to comment on the matter,” said former PPCC chief Partap Bajwa. Another former PPCC chief Hanspal said due representation should be given to other communities. “The post should be given to a Dalit leader,” said SS Dullo, who too had occupied the post once.
A party source said since Amarinder had declared that this would be his last political innings, the leadership was keen on restructuring the party structure to prepare itself for the 2019 Parliamentary elections.
