October 27, 2014 by admin

Punjab Congress at war- with itself

Chandigarh, The Congress in Punjab is at war and the enemy happens to be the Congress itself, not the ruling Akali Dal-BJP alliance which is otherwise confronted with tidal wave of anti-incumbency. This war intensified yesterday at Ludhiana from where state party chief Partap Singh Bajwa embarked upon his campaign to mobilise the grassroots workers.

It was only days back that party vice-president Rahul Gandhi, with his first ever interaction with the Congressmen at the Punjab Congress Bhavan after the Lok Sabha elections had endeavoured to calm down the frayed tempers by trying to impress upon the warring faction that only the Congress could defeat the Congress and that it was the inner-party factionalism that was the worst enemy. He counselled the party men to close ranks and launch a decisive war against the ruling alliance. The Congress seems to be fully geared up for the fight to finish- the target being the Congress itself. Rahul had interaction with the MPs, MLA, ex-PPCC chiefs, district and block presidents and other leaders separately but the theme was the same.

It was only after getting embolden with the support from the high command that Bajwa had planned his moves to gear up the party as the situation is ripe. In the last Lok Sabha election, it was the Aam Aadmi Party which cashed upon this anti-incumbency. It was the AAP which proved to be the undoing of the Congress in the state. The AAP has lost its momentum. And it was the Lok Sabha election which revived the fortunes of former chief minister Capt. Amarinder Singh who gave a crushing defeat to Arun Jaitley in Amritsar. However, he has repeatedly made it known that his first love is Punjab and not the national politics. Presently, he happens to be the deputy leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party
The MLAs, by and large, are supporting Capt. Amarinder Singh as Bajwa, for certain reasons, has not succeeded in winning them over to his side. Recently, the MLAs launched signature campaign against Bajwa. However, now these MLAs want the local bodies elections to be over to put up pressure on the party high command to change the present set up. However, according to the sources, AICC general secretary Shakeel Ahmed who is in-charge of the Punjab affairs has put his weight behind Bajwa as he is opposed to Capt. Amarinder Singh. Similar is the case of party Secretary Harish Chaudhary who is assisting Ahmed.

In Ludhiana, a section of the block Congress presidents has initiated signature campaign against Bajwa and the provocation happened to be the replacement of the DCC (Urban) president. The block presidents are normally aligned with the local MLA. There lies the problem.

During interaction with Rahul, some block level activists had openly blamed the ego of some senior leaders for factionalism but there is no change in the ground situation.

Ironically, while the people are fed up with the Akali Dal-BJP government, the opposition has failed to come into action. It is rather the BJP which has entered the aggressive mode after the party captured power at the centre at its own and now in neighbouring Haryana. The Akali Dal-BJP divide is now becoming too perceptible, the latest manifestation being the virtual isolation of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the stage during swearing in of Manohar Lal Khattar as the Haryana Chief Minister. Badal was not given any importance by the BJP top brass starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In Punjab, it is the Congress which is vacating the space for the BJP due to its intense factionalism. There is little hope of retrieval of situation under then given circumstances. Rahul Gandhi might prove to be right at least in this case. But then it is he who would have to act and deal with the indiscipline with a strong hand. The PPCC chief, who-so-ever he might be, would not be able to function without unstinted support from all factions which are functioning as autonomous Congress units. It is not just the change which would improve the fortunes of the party. This state of affairs has been going on for years. The party is dying a slow death.

Thanks To Jagtar Singh