In an apparent attempt to send across the message that he is here to stay, to Congress party leaders in Punjab — including friends and foes — former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh made yet another effort to grab the party reins and unsaddle his bête noire Partap Singh Bajwa.
Back from a foreign trip a day before, Capt Amarinder wasted no time and met Congress national president Sonia Gandhi on Friday claiming that the party could not trot to victory with his rival leading from the front. Sources informed The Pioneer that Capt Amarinder has asked the party chief that she needed to bring immediate change in the State leadership if she wanted to give the Congress a chance at victory in the 2017 State elections. “We need a strong leadership to win the elections in Punjab, and I don’t think Bajwa can win the State for us,” said Capt Amarinder, while interacting with the media after his meeting with Sonia Gandhi.
It has been learnt that Capt Amarinder has told the party chief that resentment against Bajwa was deep-rooted and the party cadre was also demoralised under him. Reacting strongly, Bajwa took Capt Amarinder head on questioning his “moral right to judge” his leadership ability after loosing two Assembly elections.“He has come from a long holiday, just wanted to make his presence felt. If anyone meets the party president the matter should have been left there…he should not have crossed the laxman rekha by speaking to the media,” said Bajwa.
He added, “I never spoke against him when he lost successive elections, so he should adhere to party discipline and help me in our fight against the Akali-BJP Government.” As his show of strength, Capt Amarinder has called a meeting of his supporters and MlAs on Sunday at his Moti Bagh Palace in Patiala. The race for the party reins has been on between the two top leaders since long with the party being divided into two power centres.
The campaign, that was initiated soon after party faced worst-ever poll debacle in 2014, to oust Bajwa for his failure to lead the party to victory despite strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling SAD-BJP Government gained momentum with the party facing yet another defeat in Talwandi Sabo Assembly bypolls contested under his supervision.
On the other hand, Capt Amarinder led his wife and former Union Minister Preneet Kaur to victory resulting in his emergence as a strong leader, especially after strengthening his position within the party by winning parliamentary polls against BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley. Contrarily, Bajwa’s failure to retain his Gurdaspur lok Sabha seat and party’s loss at Talwandi Sabo has built anti-wave against him. Anti-Bajwa camp has been building pressure over the party high command to remove him from the party’s top post. In fact, Capt Amarinder had also maintained that he had expressed his opinion against Bajwa during his earlier meetings with the party’s national president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Raising the same demand on Friday, Capt Amarinder has put a break on all speculations, doing the rounds since past few days, regarding him quitting the Congress and joining the BJP. Already, Amritsar MP has rebuffed such “reports” on his Facebook page as “handiwork of vested interests”, “baseless and should not be given any importance”. “I have been Chief Minister and twice state unit president. Where else I can goIJ” he said.
The development assumes significance as the Congress high command is mulling over replacing Capt Amarinder from the post of party’s Deputy leader after his continuous absence from Parliament’s Winter Session, that concluded recently. There are reports that following his removal, Capt Amarinder might be asked to concentrate on the State politics and be projected as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the next Assembly polls in Punjab. It is also believed that the rumours of Capt Amarinder joining the BJP has also been spread by his supporters either to gauge the mood, or as a pressure tactics on the party high command.
The former Chief Minister has several times expressed his desire to spend his energies in Punjab politics rather than at the national level. In fact, he was reluctant to contest the lok Sabha polls and even denied to contest from Bathinda against Badal bahu, Harsimrat Kaur. He was forced to contest parliamentary polls from Amritsar against Arun Jaitley. It is believed that the party high command is hesitant to give Capt Amarinder another chance, but a section of senior leaders have not ruled out the possibility of projecting his as party’s face for 2017 Punjab polls.