The Congress party in Punjab is in crisis over the issue of leadership again. Dhuri by-elections brought former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and State unit president Partap Singh Bajwa on the same podium, but the two poles of a hardly magnetic party in the State are once again repelling each other. For, Capt Amarinder’s men on Sunday stayed away from the crucial Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) meeting, to chalk out the strategy for Dhuri by-polls, in protest against Bajwa’s failure to invite the senior party leader.
The protest is a part of series of events which began a day before with Capt Amarinder walking out of Dhuri election campaign. His decision came after the State party chief appointed former MP Vijay Inder Singla, owing allegiance to Bajwa, as a parallel power centre against high command’s decision to appoint Guru Har Sahai MlA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, close to Capt Amarinder, as election in-charge for Dhuri. Adding fuel to the fire, Capt Amarinder was not invited for the party important meeting of all party MlAs, MPs and PPCC members on Sunday to plan the poll strategy for Dhuri by-election, to be presided over by the party national general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Punjab Shakeel Ahmed.
The meeting of all MPs, MlAs, former MPs, former MlAs and the party leadership was called by Bajwa at Dhuri to assign election duties. Disapproving, Capt Amarinder had blamed Bajwa of making attempts of creating dual power centre for the campaign. Taking a strong exception to the PPCC “not inviting him” for Sunday's crucial meeting, where all other senior leaders, including Congress legislature Party leader Sunil Jakhar and former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, had been invited to chalk out the campaign strategy, Capt Amarinder lashed out at Bajwa “for creating a division” in the party.
While Capt Amarinder had accused Bajwa of “deliberately ignoring him”, Capt Amarinder's nominee Rana Gurmit Singh Sodhi had also opted out of being in-charge for Dhuri bypoll saying that there was no point in it when Bajwa had appointed another election incharge.
The development came a few days after the two senior Congress leaders — Capt Amarinder and Bajwa — came on the same platform to support the candidature of former Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala’s grandson Simar Partap Singh as party candidate for Dhuri by-election. On the day of his filing of nominations, the two leaders were present together in the election rally.
It also assumes significance as the decisive Dhuri by-election is just less than a fortnight away. With dispirited party cadre and series of defeats in the past, the Congress apparently cannot afford another loss. The party already has a dwindling share in the Assembly. Two of its MlAs — Joginderpal Jain and Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu — shifted loyalties to join the SAD before being re-elected. Their number further dipped to 43 with Dhuri MlA Arvind Khanna regining from active politics that necessitated by-lection.
The party stands a chance of taking up its total to respectable figure of 44 by retaining the Dhuri seat. On the other hand, a win for the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Dhuri by-election would mean complete majority to the party on its own with 59 seats in 117-member House, relieving it from dependence on its ally, the BJP, with which it is facing strained relations.
The party’s election campaign to retain Dhuri Assembly seat seems to have suffered a setback even before its start — indicating that Congress is yet to learn lessons from its past. Facing back-to-back resounding defeats with falling popularity graph in Punjab, the infighting continues even after emerging as major reason for the same. Political observers believed that the party can embark upon the road to success only after removing the hurdles thrown by the enemies within. They add that the party top brass, on the face of it, has not even been paying much heed to the advice given to them by the central leadership, evident from the fact that Rahul Gandhi had, just before the Delhi poll, asked them to fall in line. Notwithstanding, Bajwa’s position as the State party president is believed to be somewhat precarious as the Congress’ performance hardly registered improvement ever since the reins were handed over to him and the banner of revolt was raised against him by the party leaders.