Top Congress leaders from Punjab on Thursday stressed the need to strengthen the party organisation at the grassroots level and a micro-management plan to expose the state’s AAP government.
Bhupesh Baghel, the Congress general secretary in-charge of party affairs in Punjab, said there was an exodus in AAP in the state and added its boat was about to sink.
“There is an exodus in AAP and the boat is about to sink. When it will sink, I don’t know,” Baghel told reporters after the meeting.
A meeting of the party’s Punjab political affairs committee was held at the new AICC headquarters where several leaders, including Congress Legislature Party leader Pratap Bajwa and Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring spoke freely.
“We discussed ways to strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level, according to the AICC’s directions. The Congress is very strong in Punjab but there is need for micro-management. We gave a message of making the party strong and everyone spoke freely,” Baghel said.
In the next meeting, the state unit will prepare its agenda against the Punjab government that will be taken to the booth level, he added.
He further said there would be a training programme for party leaders and booth committees would be formed.
“We will be fighting for issues related to farmers, youngsters, women, Dalits, and drugs-related matters,” he said.
“We will prepare an agenda on Punjab’s issues and against the government. We will go up to the booth level and prepare a proper agenda... Booth-level committees will also be formed and hold a training programme for our workers,” he added.
Former Pradesh Congress Committee chief Navjot Singh Sidhu did not attend the meeting despite being invited.
Baghel also dismissed as rumours talks of an internal report submitted to the Congress president on the party’s Punjab affairs.“This is a total rumour and has no truth in such things,” he asserted.
On Enforcement Direcrorate (ED) raids against him in Chhattisgarh, Baghel said, “The BJP always uses central agencies as tools against the opposition. First, it conducted raids in Jharkhand and then in Chhattisgarh. We do not fear these raids. The maximum raids were conducted in a small state like Chhattisgarh,” the former Chhattisgarh chief minister said.