Nearly four years after Capt Amarinder Singh was pushed out of the Congress saddle, he may again find the reins in his hand. For, the Congress leadership is contemplating restoration of power to the Patiala Royal.
The move is being seen as an indication of recognition of Capt Amarinder’s importance in the State politics, especially after the first phase of his “successful” mass contact programmes across the state.
The power may, however, come at the cost of Punjab Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa. Even, Capt Amarinder on Friday made it clear that he was sticking to his previous stand of not working with Bajwa on the party’s top post.
Sources informed The Pioneer that party president Sonia Gandhi has realised that the Congress cannot do well without Capt Amarinder and has already conveyed the same to his son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who is virtually running the show presently.
It has been learnt that Sonia Gandhi has insisted to take the former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder along, at every step, and even suggested to make him the party’s face for the next assembly polls in Punjab, scheduled to be held in 2017. She has reportedly pressed that veterans should not be disregarded in an attempt to give young face to the party, especially in Punjab.
Available information suggests that even most of the top-rung leaders are of the view that a charismatic and senior leader like Capt Amarinder should be the party’s face against the all-powerful Badal family in Punjab.
Capt Amarinder, ever since Bajwa was made the party chief replacing him, had been expressing his dissatisfaction over Bajwa’s appointment, and demanding his replacement with “better choice”. The oust-Bajwa campaign further gained momentum after the party faced a resounding defeat in 2014 lok Sabha polls with Bajwa’s failure to save his own seat. As of now, more than 30 sitting MlAs out of 43, are supporting Capt Amarinder, besides many former legislators and other senior leaders.
What armour-plated Capt Amarinder’s position was party high command’s confidence in him to field him against BJP stalwart Arun Jaitely, in his first-ever lok Sabha husting, which he ultimately proved right by defeating Jaitley from more than lakh votes in Amritsar parliamentary constituency.
Amritsar MP has, several times, conveyed to the party high command the urgent need to replace Bajwa “with a leader accepted by all” as the state party chief and “revamping the party” to take the party towards victory in 2017.
Capt Amarinder, in a statement issued on Friday, reiterated that the real issue facing the party in Punjab was its strengthening and revival to dislodge the Akali Dal-BJP government from the state.
“And there has been no change in my stand on the issue nor has I entertained or accepted any suggestions or proposals to reconsider it,” he said while rubbishing reports hinting at proposal to accept the post of party’s campaign committee head - which he has already turned down, and later giving chief ministerial post if party attains majority.
“There is no truth in the reports that I have reconsidered or reviewed my stand on the leadership issue in Punjab, which I have duly conveyed to the party high command,” he said.
Adding, he said that he had already conveyed his views to the party high command about a couple of months ago and “nothing has changed since then” and his stand remains the same. “This has also been endorsed by the rank and file of the party, including a predominant majority of the sitting and former legislators besides the multitude of crowds, who attended my rallies in the first phase of the mass contact programme,” he said.
Capt Amarinder said that he was of the firm belief that the party needs a strong, powerful and popular leadership in Punjab to combat the Akalis and the BJP. “While appointing the leader is indeed the discretion of the high command, at the same time, the leader must be acceptable to the party rank and file across the state and must enjoy the trust and confidence of people as well,” he pointed.
“I have never made the announcement of Chief Ministerial candidate an issue. What I have always emphasised is strengthening the party and boosting the morale of the rank and file and channelize the anger and alienation against the Akali-BJP regime in a way that party storms to power in Punjab in 2017. I have been moving across the state and succeeded in building up a powerful movement against the ruling Akali-BJP alliance,” he said.
The senior Congress leader once again insisted that for the same, there needs to be “total revamp of the party at the grassroot like block and district level to build up a powerful and effective campaign against the Akali-BJP alliance”.
He added that distribution of tickets and nominating or appointing the Chief Minister will come later. “Ticket distribution has to be made on the basis of winnability of the candidates and not for appeasing and obliging different sections of the leadership for the sake of maintaining a balance,” he said.
There are reports that the party high command is seriously considering restructuring the state party unit, and considering the names of former Union Minister and Sonia Gandhi’s close aide Ambika Soni, party’s young MP Ravneet Singh Bittu and senior leader lal Singh to replace Bajwa.