Captain to hit the heat and dust of Punjab
Saturday, 25/08/2012
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=46132&boxid=57993&uid=&dat=2012-08-25
Chandigarh: Even as his detractors are upping the ante for his ouster, the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Capt Amarinder Singh has swung into action.
In a bid to quiet his rivals in the party, who accuse him of being inaccessible and not going to the field following which the morale of party workers was eroding, the former Chief Minister on Friday announced to conduct a tour of entire state from September 2 onwards.
If the sources close to him are to be believed, Amarinder has decided to go to field after getting a nod from high command to continue leading the party till the next Lok Sabha elections slated for 2014.
However, his detractors refuse to believe that Amarinder has got ‘another extension’ and claimed that it was his ‘last attempt’ to remain on the chair even as the party high command is seriously contemplating change in leadership after party’s worst-ever drubbing in the state.
Announcing his tour programme here, Amarinder said he would visit each and every Assembly constituency in the state and meet the workers to rejuvenate the party cadres. The party MLA or defeated nominee has been asked to arrange the visit and organise political rally.
In the first leg of his tour, the PPCC president would visit seven places.
To begin with, Amarinder would visit Patti in Tarn Taran on September 2, when the party nominee Harminder Gill would organise a rally.
Likewise, the former CM would be in Chamkaur Sahib on September 3, Rampura Phool on September 5, Phillaur on September 6, Majitha on September 9, Fatehgarh Churian on September 12, and Sanaur on September 13, where senior Congress leader Lal Singh would be the host.
The next phase of his tour programme would be announced later, a source close to PPCC chief said.
Amarinder’s move has made his detractors to further mount the pressure on high command to expedite decision on change in leadership keeping in one after another three drubbings in less than four months.
Having relied on history to allow the SAD-BJP alliance to create history by returning to power in Assembly elections, facing humiliating defeat in the civic polls and losing the July 11 Dasuya Assembly by-election by over 47,000 votes, which was almost ten times the margin at which the party had lost in the recently held general state elections, the main opposition Congress is presently finding it hard to come to terms with uncertainty prevailing over its revamp.
Sources close to the powers-that-be in Delhi confided in Daily Post that the party high command is of the considered view that a Jat Sikh leader could prove useful in bringing back the lost glory of Congress in Punjab. Under this viewpoint, Gurdaspur MP Partap Singh Bajwa, former MP Jagmeet Singh Brar and sitting Kharar MLA Jagmohan Singh Kang had emerged frontrunners for taking Amarinder’s place as PPCC president.
Sources in Delhi said the high command is not only unable to digest but is also not ready to believe that how the party has been moving continuously towards elimination from political arena of Punjab.
