New Delhi/Chandigarh (TIP): A party in disarray in a poll-bound state. A defiant state unit chief rebuffing the party’s overtures. A snubbed former chief minister meeting a top political rival. And, senior leaders publicly voicing differences with the leadership, prompting protests by others in the same party.
The Congress’ troubles in Punjab spilled over to Delhi on Wednesday as former chief minister Amarinder Singh met Union home minister Amit Shah and leaders upped their pitch for organisational changes, a day after state unit chief Navjot Singh Sidhu’s abrupt resignation plunged the party into crisis.
Singh, who had denied talk of him visiting Shah a day ago, drove to the home minister’s residence around 6pm for a meeting that lasted less than an hour.
The event stoked speculation that Singh, who resigned as CM last week after a months-long tussle with Sidhu and complained he was humiliated by the party leadership, could join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or seek its support.
But Singh said the meeting focused on the ongoing farm agitation against three central laws. “Met Union home minister Amit Shah ji in Delhi. Discussed the prolonged farmers agitation and urged him to resolve the crisis urgently,” he tweeted.
A senior BJP functionary said a section of the party felt Singh could resolve the standoff between the government and protesting farmers, but added that nothing was finalised. The Congress accused Shah and the BJP of trying to take revenge. “Amit Shah’s residence is the hub of anti-Dalit politics,”said party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, referring to the Punjab’s new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, a Dalit.
“Not ji huzoor 23”
The Congress’s woes in Punjab, where the party was well-placed to fight the February-March assembly polls before factionalism erupted in May, prompted a group of senior leaders in Delhi to resurrect their 2020 demands for organisational changes and internal elections.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the leaders of the so-called G23, wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking a Congress Working Committee meeting to discuss the Punjab and Goa situations as well as the “mass exodus” in the organisation. Senior Congress leader and former Goa CM Luizhinio Falerio joined the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday, Sept 29.
Another G-23 leader, Kapil Sibal, demanded “open dialogue” and introspection, questioning the lack of clarity in the decision-making process.
He emphasised that the grouping was not made up of yes men: “We are G23 but not ‘ji huzoor (yes, lordship) 23’,” he told reporters in the Capital.
Sibal said he was speaking on behalf of the 23 leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi last year and were waiting for the leadership to act on their demands.
“We don’t have a president. So, who’s taking the decisions? We all know and yet we don’t know. We want a CWC meeting for a dialogue to take place,” he said.
The former Union minister clarified that the G-23 leaders did not plan to exit the party. “People close to them have left them. But those who are not considered close, are with them,” he said, referring to the exits of senior leaders in recent months.
Party general secretary Ajay Maken criticised the comments and party workers protested outside his house in the evening with “get well soon” placards. “My appeal to Mr Sibal and others like him is that they should not denigrate the organisation which has given them political identity by rushing to the media every then and now,” Maken told PTI.
Punjab tussle
Dissension in the Congress’s Punjab unit erupted in May but the leadership hoped the appointment of Sidhu as party unit chief and the removal of his arch-rival Singh as CM would tamp down tensions.
But Sidhu’s resignation barely 72 days after being appointed took the party by surprise, and embarrassed Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who together orchestrated Sidhu’s appointment and Singh’s exit as part of an effort to end factionalism and improve the party’s chances in next year’s state elections.
The move exposed new fault lines in the party. On Wednesday, Sidhu appeared to rebuff the Congress’s overtures and questioned key appointments made by chief minister Channi.
“To fight for justice of ‘Guru Sahib’ and to improve the lives of people of Punjab and for the means, I will make any sacrifice but will always stand by principles,” Sidhu said, despite a series of senior leaders, including Channi, trying to convince him to take back the resignation.
Senior leaders said differences between Sidhu and his one-time close associate Channi sprang up over picking minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, who the former cricketer sees as a rival for the CM’s post, and controversial appointments to the positions of state advocate general and director general of police.
Channi signalled that the party continued to talk to Sidhu. “I called him (Sidhu) and told him that the party is supreme… I have spoken to him on phone and told him to let’s sit, talk it out and resolve the issue,” the CM told reporters in Chandigarh.
Defiant, Sidhu raises appointments in state
Chandigarh : A day after his dramatic resignation as Punjab Congress chief, Navjot Singh Sidhu kept his party on tenterhooks on Wednesday, putting out a video to raise questions over key appointments by chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and rebuffing overtures by top leaders. Channi, who is battling his first major political crisis just 10 days after taking over as the CM, offered to sit down and iron out differences. But Sidhu struck a defiant note in his video message, questioning the selection of the advocate general, director general of police and “tainted leaders” in the cabinet. Sidhu said he was ready to make any sacrifice but would always stand by his principles. “My first priority is to fight for justice that people have been waiting for…I will fight for truth till my last breath.
Source: HT