Congress grapples with Punjab infighting

An incumbent Congress chief minister who just a few months back looked set to return to power, the characteristic in-fighting that has come to be the norm in many state units of the party, and a high command that appears to be encouraging the dissidents to speak up.

All are part of a high-stakes drama being played out in Punjab and Delhi, with there being no certainty that a meeting between state chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh and a three-member committee (Mallikarjun Kharge, Harish Rawat and JP Aggarwal) set up by the party high command to resolve the issue, will result in anything substantive.

At the core of the issue, according to one camp, is the chief minister’s style of functioning; according to the other, it is the ambition of some of the Captain’s rivals, including Navjot Singh Sidhu.

But the issue has become larger than that now -- something that should worry the party ahead of next year’s state elections that it looked set to win under the Captain, largely on account of the farm protest that broke the partnership of the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party, leaving the former on a weak wicket and ensuring the temporary oblivion of the latter in the state.

Captain Amarinder Singh’s team says there’s no problem at all. “It’s just a checklist before the polls,’’ said finance minister Manpreet Badal , on the meetings the committee has been having. “There is no rebellion at all.’’

Yet, HT learns that the 79-year old chief minister is particularly miffed that the party’s high command has asked an intermediary to encourage legislators to speak out against him.

“Harish Chaudhary, a Rajasthan minister and former AICC secretary in charge of Punjab elections, has been calling up MLAs for the past 10 days,’’ said a person close to the CM who asked not to be named.