‘2019 CONG DIFFERENT FROM 2014’

MALOT (PUNJAB): The Congress of 2019 is different from that of 2014 as the party is giving more importance to regional

leaders than it was doing earlier and has also become more aggressive, says Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Singh, under whose leadership the Congress won the assembly elections in Punjab in 2017 after facing a drubbing in the 2014 general polls, in an interview to PTI said that in the past five years “regional leaders of the party have been given more say in the affairs of the Congress and its policies for states.”

Punjab might have brought it more starkly to the fore but the realisation to give more importance to regional leaders started dawning much earlier, he said.

Underlining that regional leaders have a better connect with the people in the states, he said the Congress therefore has a deeper insight into the aspirations of people across the country today.

“The party is giving more importance to regional leaders than it was doing earlier,” Singh said in response to his argument that the Congress of 2019 is different from that of 2014.

Hailing Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Singh said under his dynamic leadership, the party has grown in confidence, and “the defensiveness of the past has given way to a new aggression”, adding this is particularly welcome in the current political environment when the nation requires a strong alternative to the BJP. “Within the organisation, there is a palpable shift in the way we function. There is more transparency and democracy. Rahul Gandhi, in the past five years, has evolved his style of functioning to connect with the workers at the grassroots,” he said.