Congress is facing the problem of plenty in terms of grievances. Peeved over the names included or left out from the list of office bearers of Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), no less than 250 party leaders have appeared before the four-member panel to air their grievances.
What is more startling is that till now, the Committee has just paid heed to the complaints of party leaders from just two regions — Majha and Doaba, while the grudges of leaders from the ‘vast’ Malwa region are yet to be heard. If this is not enough to realise the gravity of the problem of dissension within the party, those who approached the panel include sitting parliamentarians, legislatures, and other senior party leaders.
Seeing the controversy arising out of PPCC office bearers’ list attaining huge proportions, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on January 7 had constituted a four-member team to clear the political mess created by disgruntled leaders within the party. The panel, under the chairmanship of party’s MP from Jalandhar and special invitee of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) Mohinder Singh Kaypee, was entrusted to look into the grievances of leaders unhappy with the PPCC list.
While setting a month’s deadline to submit report on the same to the party high command, the committee has been asked to also consult the senior leaders of the State, and suggest ways and means to address these issues. Other Committee members include sitting MlA and former Minister laal Singh, AICC secretary Kl Sharma, and the state Mahila Congress president Dr Malti Thapar.
The Committee was formed days after the AICC president Sonia Gandhi has sought a detailed report from some senior Congress leaders alarmed over the internal crisis in party’s Punjab unit. Raising serious concerns over the ongoing rebellion within the party against Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa, and discontentment among leaders over PPCC reconstitution, Sonia Gandhi has sought views from the party leaders on resolving the issue, and even expressed displeasure over the role of state party general secretary in-charge Shakeel Ahmad.
Sources told The Pioneer that the panel head, Mohinder Kaypee, has listened to the complaints of more than 250 leaders from the State Congress in past two days in the national Capital from Majha and Doaba regions of the State.
It has been learnt that the leaders have mainly expressed their displeasure for accommodating their subordinates further up the ladder while ignoring them, double-crossing them by promising something and giving something else, and giving posts to those who remained unfaithful to the party in the past by ignoring the faithful. It has been learnt that among those who met Kaypee include Anandpur Sahib MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Kharar MlA Jagmohan Singh Kang, Kapurthala MlA Rana
Gurjit Singh, former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Assembly Darbari lal, former Minister Raman Bhalla, ex-MlA Chaudhary Ram lubhaya, AICC member Tejinder Singh Bittu, among others. Kang, and Rana Gurjit were among the first few leaders to contradict the posts given to senior leaders after the reconstitution of the PPCC.
After the former Union law Minister and MP Ashwani Kumar, Kang, followed by Dr Malti Thapar, sitting MlA from Fatehgarh Churian Tripit Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Rana Gurjit, former ministers Chaudhary Jagjit Singh, Santokh Chaudhary and Amarjit Singh Samra, and many others opposed the newly-constituted body.
The leaders, creating a rift of sorts within the party, have been openly airing their discontentment over the PPCC, alleging Bajwa of adopting the ways of “nepotism”, “poor representation” and “betraying” those supported the party, despite having a jumbo PPCC list. Already, Bajwa, and Ahmad have made it clear that they are open to “reconsideration” of the list.
