The intense factional rivalry between former Punjab Chief Minister and the permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee Capt Amarinder Singh and PPCC President Partap Singh Bajwa has come out in the open.
Capt Amarinder on Saturday questioned the authority of Bajwa to announce candidates for various parliamentary and Assembly segments. In a statement issued here, Capt Amarinder said, he had noticed for last few days that the PCC president has started announcing party candidates for different parliamentary and Assembly segments. He said the PCC president has no authority to do so and this had only created confusion among the party rank and file.
The former Chief minister, who had himself headed the party in the State for several years, said allotting a ticket was the prerogative of the party president Sonia Gandhi and the vice president Rahul Gandhi. “By going on the announcement spree in nominating candidates for the Assembly and Parliamentary segments in Punjab, Bajwa is overstepping his brief,” he remarked, while adding that this only sent wrong signals among the rank and file of the party.
Capt Amarinder pointed out there was a proper system in the Congress party to select the candidates after a due broad based and transparent selection process and then the final decision was taken by the Congress president only. A PCC president cannot just go and announce the party candidates of his own, he clarified.