Out of power and disgruntled leaders of the Congress have finally been given a task. They have been made in-charge or members of the Campaign Committee and Coordination Committee formed by the party high command for the 2014 lok Sabha polls.
The development is significant as the move, apparently aimed at pleasing them, came just about a fortnight before the State goes to the polls, on April 30. Otherwise also, while the Congress party has formed a campaigning committee now, canvassing is already in full swing by the other parties.
As the All India Congress Committee has “officially” given its senior “jobless” leaders — former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Surinder Singla, lal Singh — some work to do, it has, at the same time, tried to pacify the dissident elements within the party, including former state party unit chief Shamsher Singh Dullo, and former MP Jagmeet Brar, by making him committee in-charge.
Winning over Dullo and Brar had become a necessity for the Congress party. While Dullo was unhappy after the party denied him ticket from Fatehgarh Sahib, Brar too was one of the aspirants to contest polls from ‘anywhere’.
As almost all the State party leaders, including former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, his MP wife Preneet Kaur, former Union Minister Ambika Soni, State party president Partap Singh Bajwa, leader of Opposition in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Sunil Kumar Jakhar, are out in the electoral battlefield, the party was facing some problem in campaigning.
Considering the same, Bhattal has been made the in-charge of the Election Campaign Committee, for which AICC president Sonia Gandhi has given her consent. With her, Jagmeet Brar has been made the co-Chairman and Surinder Singla as Convenor. The other members of election campaign committee are Capt Vikram Singh, MlAs Randeep Singh Nabha, Harchand Kaur, Charanjit Singh Channi, and Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi.
Others are Sangat Singh Gilzian, Amrik Singh Dhillon, D.R. Bhatti, Rajanbir Singh, Rajbir Singh Thakur, Dharampal Sabharwal, Avtar Henry, Razia Sultana, Ramesh Singla, Kamajit Singh lalli, Jugal Kishore Sharma, Com Nathu Ram, Prof Darbari lal, Harminder Singh Jassi, Dr Mohinder Rinwa, Swaraj Dhillon, Virender Sharma, Salamat Mashish, Jasbir Singh Sangrur, Joginder Dhingra, Jagdarshan Kaur, Arun Walia, Ajay Verma, Malti Thapar, Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary, Mohinder Singh Kalyan, Gurinder Pal Singh Billa, Amjad Khan, Rajinder Rasrania, and Daman Bajwa.
The Election Coordination Committee, which will significant decision on where which when a leader would campaign, besides deciding on the rallies among other things, will be headed by Dullo with senior leader and MlA lal Singh as co-Chairman and Amar Singh as Convenor.
Other members of the Committee are MlAs Brahm Mohindra, Aruna Chaudhary, Tej Parkash Singh, Raja Amrinder Singh Warring, and Parminder Singh Pinky. Besides, Vikram Singh Bajwa, Hansraj Singh Bajwa, Hansraj Josan, Satnam Singh Kainth, Jasbir Singh Pal, Roshan Joseph and Rajpal Singh have also made members.