Manpreet’s PPP fast disintegrating
Wednesday, 22/08/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120822/punjab.htm#5
Chandigarh: For someone whose party was touted as the third alternative in Punjab, People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) chief Manpreet Singh Badal now seems to be presiding over an organisation disintegrating by the day. Buoyed at disgruntled SAD leaders flocking to him in the runup to the assembly elections, Manpreet is now finding the going tough. He is not getting any new converts to his party and his old colleagues are deserting him.
Doubts are being expressed about Manpreet’s leadership qualities and his ability to keep his flock together with his former colleagues and friends lashing out at him.
Manpreet suffered a setback last week when the PPP’s Fatehgarh Sahib candidate Didar Singh Bhatti opted to return to the SAD. Now, former MLA Bir Devinder Singh has quit his post in the party, calling Manpreet “individualistic and autocratic”.
There are rumblings in Manpreet’s inner circles with PPP founder and ideologue Dr Sardara Singh Johl posting his views on the Facebook titled “Unsolicited Suggestions to PPP”. The postings were brought to light by Bir Devinder. Johl, when contacted, said the party did not have any organisational structure. He said the party office should be more accessible to party workers.
Asked as to why Manpreet’s colleagues were leaving him, he said: “May be he is not involving them. People who are not involved in a party, leave the party”. Asked whether the PPP was disintegrating, he said: “I am still watching the situation”.
Manpreet’s former aide Charanjit Brar, now adviser to Deputy CM Sukhbir Badal, said Manpreet hads lost credibility because he did not follow the agenda set by him. He claimed leaders were deserting Manpreet because he neither trusted them, nor took their advice to run the party.
The PPP chief, when approached, said there was no question of the PPP disintegrating. He said the Sanjha Morcha was formed in September last year on the basis of a common minimum programme. “We are still passionate about it”. Only “professional politicians” have left the PPP, he added.
However, sources maintained that after Manpreet walked out of the SAD in October 2010, he was unable to attract political leaders other than the Akalis to the PPP. And this was the reason for his downfall.
His steadfast supporters Jagbir Singh Brar and Kushaldeep Dhillon were won over by the Congress in the runup to the assembly elections, stemming the flow of other Congress leaders to the PPP. Dissident Congress men chose to contest as Independents rather than joining the PPP.
Significantly, only six candidates, besides Manpreet, secured more than 20,000 votes in the assembly elections. Except for comedian Bhagwant Mann, all of them, including Didar Singh Bhatti from Fatehgarh Sahib (who has rejoined the SAD), Gurpreet Bhatti from Khanna, Ranjit Kaur from Buddhlada, Ajit Singh Chanduraiyan from Amargarh and Amardeep Brar from Ropar, have an Akali background. A few of these leaders could return to the SAD in which case Manpreet would be under pressure to join the Congress.
Sources said the Congress is not averse to an electoral tie-up with the PPP and the Left parties. Under this tie-up the Bathinda parliamentary seat could be left for the PPP with Manpreet taking on the Badals once again by contesting against Harsimrat Badal.
This could mean a consolidation of political forces against the SAD-BJP alliance which could well be Manpreet’s last chance to get the better of the SAD, the party he wanted to eclipse.
