Amarinder to lead Punjab’s poll battle, says Cong amid infighting
CHANDIGARH: The Congress will fight the 2022 Punjab polls under chief minister Amarinder Singh, party general secretary Harish Rawat said on Wednesday after meeting lawmakers loyal to state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, as internal dissidence threatened to derail the administration months before crucial elections.
Rawat, who is the Congress Punjab in-charge and part of a panel that brokered an interim truce between longstanding rivals Singh and Sidhu in June, met four cabinet ministers and three legislators opposed to Singh for about two-and-a-halfhours in Dehradun but did not back their demand of replacing the chief minister.
“We will contest the 2022 assembly elections under Captain Amarinder’s leadership,” said Rawat. “Navjot Singh Sidhu comes from a different background. We made him the Punjab Congress president with an eye on future. But that doesn’t mean the entire party has been left to him,” he told reporters.
The developments came a day after Singh and Sidhu’s factions fired potshots at each other, shattering the fragile truce in the party unit. Ministers close to Sidhu said they lost faith in Singh and his government’s ability to fulfil election promises and leaders loyal to the chief minister demanded the ouster of Sidhu’s advisers over their controversial remarks.
Tussle for control of the party first broke out in May, and eased somewhat after Sidhu was elevated as state unit chief overriding Singh’s objections. Punjab goes to the polls early next year.
Rawat met cabinet ministers Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Charanjit Singh Channi and Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, and MLAS Kulbir Singh Zira, Surjit Singh Dhiman and Barindermeet Singh Pahra. He later said there was no threat to the state government and party in the state. A person aware of developments said the leaders’ push for Singh’s replacement was not entertained.
Addressing the media after the meeting and refusing to share details of their discussions, Rawat said, “They (the leaders) expressed serious concerns over the functioning of the state government and district administration. If a party MLA is feeling insecure that the district administration is working for his defeat because someone is upset with him, it is a matter of serious concern. I have had similar complaints earlier,”
The state incharge also said he would go to Delhi in a day or two to brief the party high command.
On the controversy generated by the statements of the Punjab Congress president’s advisers on Kashmir and Pakistan, Rawat said he spoke to Sidhu and told him to rein them in.
Channi and Bajwa said they told Rawat about their grievances. “We are firm on our demands. He (Rawat) heard us patiently on all issues. He appeared convinced and told us that he would talk to high command. We have sought time from the central leadership. If they call us, we will to go to Delhi to present our views,” the two ministers said, expressing satisfaction with the state incharge’s response. Though the initial plan was to head to Delhi from Dehradun, they returned to Chandigarh after meeting Rawat.
Congress MP and Amarinder Singh’s wife, Preneet Kaur on Wednesday hit out at ministers and MLAS seeking the removal of the CM.
“They (MLAS) should give positive inputs to get the party back to power,”she said.
Singh’s faction has targeted Sidhu’s newly appointed advisers, Malvinder Singh Mali and Pyare Lal Garg, over their controversial comments on Kashmir.
In a Facebook post last week, Mali had said Kashmir was a “country of Kashmiri people” and called both India and Pakistan its illegal occupiers. In a separate post, he put a sketch of late prime minister Indira Gandhi standing near a heap of human skulls with a gun in her hand. Garg criticised Singh for attacking Pakistan over Kashmir.
The comments immediately sparked a controversy with Singh calling them “atrocious” and “anti-national”, and Congress MP Manish Tewari condemning the leaders.