At a time when the Congress still hasn’t recovered from losing power in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand to internal rebellion, it cannot allow another round of dissidence to ruin its electoral future in Punjab. The party is set to fight Assembly elections there next year, hoping to unseat the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the State on Saturday. The main purpose, according to senior Congress leader Shamsher Singh Dullo, was to boost the morale of the workers. “We have decided to keep our personal grudges aside,” Mr. Dullo told The Hindu . “Rahulji told the workers that if we stand together we will win [the election].”
In a meeting with party workers in Zikrapur district, Mr. Gandhi shared a telephone number, asking them to call him in case their problems were not solved at the local level.
A week ago, the high command sacked senior leaders Jagmeet Singh Brar and Bir Devinder for launching an offensive against State Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh, the man the party is counting on to steer it to victory.
Mr. Brar had been criticising Mr. Singh’s administrative style. He even mocked his “Coffee with Captain” campaign, calling it a “western” construct and proposing a counter titled “Jeera lassi with Punjabis.”
The entire episode, said senior Congress leader Pratap Singh Bajwa, was “slightly distracting” for the party workers, who are facing a tough challenge from the debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Speaking to The Hindu, Shakeel Ahmed, general secretary at the Congress headquarters overseeing Punjab, said that with the ouster of Mr. Brar and Mr. Devinder the party had plugged all holes. It was now working toward putting up a united fight against the ruling front.
