Panel formed to resolve Punjab Cong infighting

THE 3-MEMBER PANEL WILL START MEETING PARTY MLAS, MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FROM NEXT WEEK

CHANDIGARH: A three-member committee formed to resolve infighting in the Punjab Congress will start meeting party MLAS, ministers and members of Parliament from next week, one of the members of the panel said on Saturday.

The committee was formed after a section of Congress leaders expressed discontent over the handling of the 2015 sacrilege issue and held meetings to exert pressure on Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh for early action against perpetrators, the member said.

The decision to meet Congress MLAS, MPS and leaders in Punjab from next week was taken by the committee, led by Rajya Sabha member Mallikarjun Kharge, at a meeting in Delhi on Saturday, people aware of the developments said. The other two members of the panel are All India Congress Committee general secretary incharge of Punjab affairs Harish Rawat and former MP JP Aggarwal.

“We will start meeting all MLAS, ministers, MPS, among others from next week in Delhi,” said Rawat, adding that they will be one-to-one meetings.

The Congress had in the run-up to the 2017 assembly polls promised to take strict action against those involved in the desecration of the Guru Granth Sahib and subsequent police firing incidents in 2015 in Kotkapura in Faridkot.

The committee was constituted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in the wake of a rift in the party’s Punjab unit, the people quoted above said.