Bogged down by infighting and a series of defeats, Congress legislators on Monday narrated their tales of woe to the party’s national vice-president Rahul Gandhi after he called them for a meeting to discuss the party’s future in Punjab.In an apparent attempt to make most of the meeting, former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh’s loyalists insisted on handing over the party reins to him.
The special meetings with the party MlAs, to be held for two consecutive days, have been convened by Rahul Gandhi to discuss various issues to keep afloat the Congress’ sinking ship.The two meetings, held on Monday evening, mainly focused on “strengthening the party’s base” in Punjab, in the wake of emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the state coupled with
growing popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Congress MlAs met Rahul in two batches, one consisting of Dalit leaders while the other was of the leaders hailing from Majha and Doaba region of the state, but raised the same issue — change of guard.Sources informed that most of the MlAs pressed for replacing Partap Singh Bajwa as the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president with a “strong leader” — undoubtedly Capt Amarinder Singh. It was also opined that some other face, neutral to both leaders, may be brought in as PPCC chief.
As of now, the names of Congress legislative Party (ClP) leader Sunil Kumar Jakhar and senior party leader laal Singh have been doing the rounds.“It was just a general interaction for which we have been called…the leadership issue was discussed. It was said that the infighting is costing the party dear and the same should be resolved at the earliest. Both leaders should some together for the party and no one should go to the press against each other,” party MlA and Bajwa’s wife Charanjit Kaur Bajwa told The Pioneer.
Capt Amarinder’s loyalists minced no words to press for their demand to remove Bajwa from party’s apex post in the presence of Bajwa’s wife. They indicated that Bajwa was not a team leader and he could not lead the party to victory in the next Assembly election scheduled to be held in 2017.“We need a strong leader. Some one who can take everybody along with him and who can give a tough reply to SAD’s growing goonda-gardi.
We have said that Capt Amarinder has done lot of work in the past and enjoys lot of support among the leaders and also people and his Amritsar rally was an answer to it,” said another MlA, requesting anonymity.Amritsar MP and senior leader Capt Amarinder had already made it clear to the party high command that he enjoys more support than his bête noire Bajwa, and he should be removed.
Rahul’s move to meet all party MlAs even when the campaigning for February 7 Delhi polls is going on is been interpreted as his attempt to consider and listen to all legislators before taking any final decision about the State party leadership.The Gandhi Scion preferred to listen and made not comments. In his recent meeting with Bajwa, Rahul had just asked him to continue with his work.
Besides leadership, discussions were also held on how to “win back” the Dalits in the state, who are expected to play a crucial role in the assembly polls, and were once Congress’ strong vote bank.Punjab has the highest concentration of Dalits with 31.9 per cent. Already, BJP is making efforts to woo the huge Dalit vote bank in the state. Elevation of dalit MP Vijay Sampla as Union Cabinet Minister and appointment of another Dalit leader Ram Shankar Katheria as in-charge of the party affairs in Punjab are seen as party’s move in this direction.
“It was discussed how the party can be strengthened in the state. He asked us what are the issues to be raised…we told him that drugs in one the major issue that the party has been raising since assembly polls,” said Congress MlA Rana Gurjit Singh.Rahul will hold another round of meeting with the party legislators from Malwa region of the State on Tuesday.