Patiala Royal Capt Amarinder Singh is back in the field, again.
Shown the red card by the party high command after a series of defeat for Congress in Punjab, former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, it seems, is being given a wild card entry by party’s national leadership.Purportedly backed by party’s national leadership, he is now playing the game once more and by his own rules.
After the Congress leadership at New Delhi reposed trust in Capt Amarinder Singh’s abilities by appointing him as “Permanent Invitee” to the all powerful Congress Working Committee (CWC), almost two months after he is asked to get down to business in the State politics, sources told The Pioneer. Reliable sources maintained that the party high command is not very happy with the working of few-months-old State party chief Partap Singh Bawja, and have asked his bete noire to remain active in the state political field.
If Capt Amarinder’s direct outburst on Bajwa a day before, questioning his authority to announce the candidates for the impending lok Sabha polls, is not enough to corroborate the same, the Maharaja on Sunday invited Congress MlAs and his loyalists for luncheon meeting at his Chandigarh residence. What is more! Capt Amarinder has also announced to tour the entire State in September with the sole aim to “strengthen the party” — at a time when his successor Bajwa is already carrying out his ‘mass contact programme’.
With this, it is amply clear that the political road for Patiala Royal is not yet ended, and the party high command has given him more responsibility in the State party unit ahead of crucial lok Sabha polls scheduled to be held in 2014. Moreover, a large section of party too believed that only Capt Amarinder Singh can revive the ‘dwindling’ fortunes of Congress in Punjab by taking the SAD-BJP combine head on. Moreover, Capt Amarinder’s stronghold and charisma in Malwa region of the state, comprising maximum number of constituencies, is unmatchable.
The development assumes significance as Bajwa, after becoming the party commander, failed to break the jinx of defeat as Congress suffered its fifth consecutive defeat starting from the Vidhan Sabha elections in the recently-held elections to Panchayati Raj institutions.
Capt Amarinder’s “hush-hush” lunch was attended by around 35 Congressmen, including around eight MlAs, some former legislatures, leaders from youth Congress, National Students Union of India, district presidents, among other leaders. Those who attended Capt Amarinder’s lunch are his loyalists — leader of Congress legislative Party (ClP) Sunil Jakhar, MlAs Arvind Khanna, Rana Gurjit Singh, Mohammad Sadique, Gurikbal Kaur, Ramanjit Singh Sikki and Sadhu Singh Dharmsot.
Besides, Punjab Youth Congress president Vikram Chaudhary, Rana Kanwarpal, lav Kumar Goldy, Razia Sultana, lali Majithia, Raja Sodhi, Makhan Singh, and others were also present. During the informal interaction with the party leaders, Capt Amarinder has asked them to strengthen Congress in the state to ensure sweeping victory in the forthcoming parliamentary elections. On the collision course with the state party chief, Capt Amarinder has also asked the party cadre to ensure that there was no confusion or misunderstanding about the fact that the Congress was a united force in the state.
In no uncertain terms, Capt Amarinder has asked the leaders that each and every party worker has to strengthen the state Congress at any cost and nobody should have any doubts about that. Maintaining that parliamentary elections were just few months away, he said that there was need to strengthen the party at every level and every leader and worker had a role and responsibility in it.