The rift between Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh and PCC president Partap Singh Bajwa came out in the open on Saturday on party’s strategy for Dhuri Assembly bypolls. In a statement, Capt Amarinder strongly disapproved Bajwa’s attempts to create dual power centres for Dhuri Assembly byelection campaign, by nominating a separate election in-charge when PCC vice president and MlA Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi had already been assigned the task.
He also took strong exception to PCC not inviting him for Sunday’s crucial meeting at Dhuri by the PCC, while all other senior leaders including the ClP leader Sunil Jakhar and former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur have been invited to chalk out the campaign strategy there. In the statement, Capt Amarinder said, since the PCC president has moved his entire office and Secretariat to Dhuri in an apparent bid to create two power centres for the campaign which, will obviously confuse the Congress workers and supporters, it may be difficult for him to go to Dhuri lest the workers get confused and disoriented as to whose guidelines to follow during the campaign.
Wishing the PCC good luck, he said, he wanted to campaign in Dhuri and had been very much there on the day of nomination also. “But PCC apparently did not want me there for the reasons best known to it”, he remarked. The latest rift between the two has jeopardised party’s chances in the bypoll, a seat which fell vacant due to the resignation of Congress MlA Arvind Khanna.
The battlelines are drawn in the segment and Aam Aadmi Party is not contesting. Ruling Shiromani Akali Dal hopes to win the by-poll and get a majority on its own in the April 11 byelection. In the 117-member Vidhan Sabha, Akali Dal has 58 legislators and if it wins, its dependence on BJP for a simple majority would go away.
To make most of the opportunity, the Akali Dal has once again laid its bet on the former Minister Gobind Singh longowal — a political legacy holder of the Akali stalwart Harchand Singh longowal. The party has re-nominated longowal notwithstanding his defeat by a margin of 12,473 votes in the 2012 Assembly polls from Congress MlA Arvind Khanna. From Congress, former Chief Minister Surjit Singh Barnala’s grandson, Simarpartap Singh Barnala is contesting the bypolls as the joint candidate of the Opposition.
Interestingly, AAP MP Bhagwant Mann bagged 51,536 votes in Dhuri during 2014 lok Sabha polls, getting a huge lead of 33,837 votes over SAD candidate Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa in his record margin victory. Congress candidate and the then sitting MP Vijay Inder Singla finished third. AAP’s decision not to contest has opened the field for SAD and Congress.