Congress central leadership, it seems, is keen on consolidating the party’s position in the states ruled by it, Punjab included. The interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s direct intervention in the state affairs became apparent with the dissolution of the Punjab Pradesh and District Congress Committees, besides setting up an 11-member coordination panel and a five-member manifesto implementation committee.
The action came a day after Sonia Gandhi held a detailed meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder, state unit president Sunil Jakhar and state party affairs in-charge Asha Kumari, questing the Government over high power tariff and growing dissidence within the party.
A day after, the party high command dissolved the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee with immediate effect, including the district committees, but retaining Jakhar as the state Congress chief.
“The Congress president has dissolved the state executive committee of Punjab and district Congress committee in the state,” party general secretary KC Venugopal said in a statement.
At the same time, Sonia Gandhi constituted a Coordination Committee, to ensure better coordination between the Congress party and the State Government, headed by All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Punjab Asha Kumari.
“Congress president has constituted a coordination committee for Punjab for better coordination with the party and the government,” an official communication said.
The coordination committee will have Chief Minister Capt Amarinder and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Sunil Jakhar as its members, besides AICC general secretary Ambika Soni.
Besides them, the panel would also have Punjab Cabinet Ministers Charanjit Singh Channi, Sunder Sham Arora, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Vijay Inder Singla, as its members along with PPCC general secretary Capt Sandeep Singh Sandhu and AICC secretaries Kuljit Nagra and Gurkirat Kotli as its members.
The committee was announced after the Congress interim chief had cleared the names after holding deliberations with Capt Amarinder and senior party leaders a day before.
The party high command had, on Monday, announced similar committees for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Puducherry which are all under Congress rule.
Besides, the high command has also set up a Manifesto Implementation Committee in Punjab, to be headed by the former Union Minister P Chidambaram.
Congress-led Punjab Government, which is set to complete its three years in March, is being targeted by the opposition for its failure to fulfill its pre-promises including eliminating drug menace, fame loan waiver, employment, unemployment allowance and mobile phones, cancelling power purchase agreements (PPAs) with private players, punishing culprits of sacrilege, among others.
Congress high command had, a day before, expressed its concern over the growing voices on the issue of costly electricity in Punjab. It has been learnt that the first question Sonia Gandhi had asked the Chief Minister in the meeting was on why the power is so expensive in Punjab for which Capt Amarinder blamed the previous SAD-BJP regime.
Chief Minister assured the party chief that the Government was working on resolving the issue, and soon its positive results will come out. During the meeting, Jakhar also described the power tariff issue as “big”.
It has been learnt that Monday’s meeting was held in two phases — one with the entire sate leadership, and another with Capt Amarinder alone. It was in one-to-one meeting between the two when Capt Amarinder raised the issue of Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa’s “outburst” against him and the State Government.
Although it was not clear what assurances Sonia Gandhi gave to Capt Amarinder, it is believed that he was satisfied with the “favourable” meeting.
