Punjab Congress seems to have learnt little lessons from its defeat during the recently-concluded Parliamentary polls. Even about a fortnight after the resounding defeat, with internal bickering emerging as one of the major reason, the infighting continues.
The Congress party, despite series of defeats, stands divided between the two power centres — each headed by the State party chief Partap Singh Bajwa and newly-elected Amritsar MP Capt Amarinder Singh. As the difference between the two senior party leaders are not unknown, the war of words between their respective camps, it seems, is digging the party’s grave in the State by indulging in fatal infighting.
The 2014 general elections has witnessed Congress’ one of the worst ever performance in the State with its tally of eight MPs coming down to just three. That is not all! Its votes share has also witnessed a huge dip, in a gap of just two years, from 40.11 per cent in 2012 State Assembly polls to 33.1 per cent. Congress’ vote share has come down by more than 12 per cent from 45.23 per cent during 2009 lok Sabha elections — thanks to the Aam Aadmi Party that has taken the major share of votes, that is 24.5 per cent, out of the two major political opponents in the State.
What is giving sleepless nights to the party leadership was that it finished third in two constituencies — Faridkot and Sangrur. While Faridkot was represented by an Akali MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, who finished second in 2014, Sangrur constituency had sitting Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla, whose security deposits has been forfeited.
The political analysts attributed Congress’ defeat on these two seats to the infighting. Even as the party managed to nip some of the dissidents within the party in the bud, the murmurs of dissidence turned into the concrete actions during the polling process.
Several MlAs of the Sangrur Parliamentary constituency, including Kewal Singh Dhillon, Mohammad Sadique, Harchand Kaur, Arvind Khanna, did not campaign for the party candidate Singla. Similarly, party’s senior leader Sukhwinder Singh Danny, party’s candidate from Faridkot in 2009 lok Sabha polls, created confusion of sorts by filing his nomination against party’s official candidate Joginder Singh Panjgrain. Though the party leadership managed to pacify him, but his absence from the poll campaign has cost party a lot.
The Congress, during 2012 Assembly polls too, had been under criticism for its failure to conciliate its rebels and keeping its flock together that led to party’s defeat, and SAD-BJP alliance’s chance to form the Government for second consecutive term.
With the internal strife, power struggle, disunity, factionalism within the Congress regardless of repeated defeats — the party is actually on a suicidal path in Punjab.
The constant tug-of-war for power between Capt Amarinder and Bajwa is nothing new. At the time when Capt Amarinder Singh was the State party chief, Bajwa continuously tried to pull him down by one way or another. Similarly, now when Bajwa is at the helm of party affairs, Capt Amarinder is leaving no stone unturned to prove that choosing Bajwa for replacing him was a wrong decision.
Now with the former chief minister registering a “historic” win against the BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley in his first ever lok Sabha election in Amritsar, Capt Amarinder is once again back in the game with his supporters wanting him back as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief.
The clamour to oust Bajwa for his failure to lead the party to victory despite strong anti-incumbency wave, besides securing a win for himself against yesteryears Bollywood superstar Vinod Khanna, is gaining momentum with each passing day.
Band of party leaders, Capt Amarinder’s close aides, including sitting or former MlAs, district unit heads, among others issued statements after statements demanding Bajwa’s resignation from the post of PPCC chief on “moral grounds”.
In a counter move, party’s disciplinary action committee chairman GK Chatrath, owing allegiance to Bajwa, issued show cause notices to Kewal Singh Dhillon and Rana Gurmeet Sodhi for “indiscipline” — that led to another slugfest.
What turned into a free-for-all, Capt Amarinder accused the Bajwa brothers for “sabotaging” his campaign in Amritsar, to which Bajwa reacted as “Capt’s utter lies”. Their respective supporters too come out with statements, attacking one another over the issue.
“Despite analysing what went wrong where and what led to AAP claiming four seats here in Punjab when it has scored none in the rest of the country, leaders are busy in pinpointing each other and claiming crown for their bosses,” a senior Congress leader, who does not wish to be named, told The Pioneer.
Conversely, Capt Amarinder’s loyalist believed that after winds of opposition blowing against the Patiala Royal, it has started blowing in his favour. “Bajwa has failed to prove his worth. He lost Gurdaspur seat, even in his home constituency,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity. Bajwa, on the other hand, maintained that Capt Amarinder could not deliver when he was at the party’s apex post. “Why he did not resign when the party lost in 2007. He was made the party president in 2004 few months after he lost lok Sabha election after joining Congress and leaving Akali Dal when it denied him a ticket... I am still a party chief... I’ll tell each and everything to the high command, and then it would be upon them to decide,” said Bajwa.