A day after the Congress lost badly in Punjab and was pushed to the third position, dissidence broke out in the party with the loyalists of former Chief Minister and giant killer, Capt Amarinder Singh demanding the resignation of State party president Partap Singh Bajwa.
Interestingly, even as the Amarinder loyalists demanded the resignation of Bajwa, they refused to demand the resignation of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi or vice-president Rahul Gandhi under whose leadership the party gave its worst-ever performance in the last 60 years.Congress had won only three of the 13 lok Sabha seats in Punjab. In the outgoing House, it had eight members. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) edged it to the third position by bagging four seats and emerging as an alternative political force in the State dominated by two parties — SAD-BJP on one side and Congress on the other.
The fresh bout of dissidence came as Capt Amarinder emerged stronger after defeating BJP veteran and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley from the prestigious Amritsar seat. In the entire country, the victory in Amritsar is the only silver lining of the Congress as all its citadels were demolished. The victory was all the more exciting for Capt Amarinder as he defeated Jaitley, widely expected to be the number two in the Narendra Modi-led new Government.
Though Capt Amarinder’s wife, Preneet Kaur lost the Congress stronghold of Patiala to AAP’s Dharamvira Gandhi, bringing into question the hold of the former Maharaja in his backyard, the faction loyal to him believes that it was due to Bajwa that the party lost badly. What has made matters worse for Bajwa now is the fact that he himself lost to Vinod Khanna in Gurdaspur by 1.36 lakh votes and the party could not even get lead in Qadian Assembly segment, represented by his wife as MlA.
Firing the first salvo, Kewal Singh Dhillon, vice-president of the PPCC along with several senior Congress leaders and legislators demanded that Bajwa should own moral responsibility for the party’s poor showing and resign from the post. They pointed out that it was one of the worst performances by the party despite widespread anti-incumbency prevailing against the Akali-BJP Government in the State. They did not refer to the anti-incumbency prevailing against the UPA Government and the wave against Congress in the entire country.
Aiming to hit when the iron is hot, almost all who are loyal to Capt Amarinder are gunning for Bajwa now. They were against Bajwa from the very beginning but now the defeat has given fresh ammunition to them. Capt Amarinder was replaced as PCC president last year after presiding over a series of defeats under his stewardship. The party lost the 2012 Assembly polls when Capt Amarinder was the PCC president and the chief ministerial candidate. It also lost the local body elections and byelections as well.
Those who demanded the resignation of Bajwa on Saturday include top leaders and MlAs — Kewal Singh Dhillon, OP Soni, Dr Raj Kumar Verka, Kikki Dhillon, Avtar Henry, Jugal Kishore, Harchand Kaur, Mohammad Sadiq, Gupreet Kangar, Rana Gurjit, Surinder Singla Ramanjit Singh Sikki, Rana KP, love Kumar Goldy, Tarsem DC, Ranjeet Singh Chhajalwadi, Sukh Sarkaria, Ch Jagjit, Raman Bhalla, Amrik Singh Dhillon, Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Makhan Singh, Sher Singh Gaggowal, Surjit Singh Dhiman, Ajaib Singh Rataul, Sunil Datti, Kaka lohgar, Dr Agnihotri, Gur Iqbal Kaur and Hardayal Kambhoj.