The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said that the Punjab Congress had all but folded up in Punjab after its president Capt Amarinder Singh had scooted off on a foreign trip along with his coterie after being snubbed by Congress national vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
“It appeared that Capt Amarinder, who did not allow former Pradesh Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa to function as PCC president, is being paid back in the same coin,” quipped SAD general secretary and state education minister Daljit Singh Cheema.
He said that a high level meeting held by the Punjab Congress to discuss the wheat procurement issue saw the same being boycotted by senior leaders including Partap Bajwa, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Shamsher Singh Dullo.
Cheema said that this was not all. “Even Congress legislature Party leader Charanjit Singh Channi did not attend the meeting which anyway was a non-starter as the Centre had released the cash credit limit for procurement of wheat in the State even as it was being held,” he said.
Apparently, Channi was miffed that Abohar legislator Sunil Jakhar and former minister lal Singh had been entrusted with the task of holding the meeting and not him, he added.
The Akali leader said that the intense factionalism in the Punjab Congress was also reflective in the team which Capt Amarinder had chosen to take along with him during his ongoing foreign trip.
He said that various senior leaders had been ignored while coterie members had been included in the trip. This had caused wide discontent in the party and was likely to harm it further, he added.
Cheema said that it was due to this leadership crisis in the Punjab Congress that the party rank and file was ditching the party in large numbers. “The Congress has virtually vanished from large pockets of the State”, he said adding that the day was not far off when it would disappear altogether from Punjab.