The leadership tussle in Congress’ Punjab unit ended on Thursday with Pratap Singh Bajwa resigning as the party chief and clearing the decks for senior leader Captain Amrinder Singh.
For several months, the rift between Singh and Bajwa gave headaches to the party high command in New Delhi. Even Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi attempted to broker a deal between the estranged leaders but Singh stood his ground, demanding the headship and a bigger say on the ticket distribution in the upcoming elections.
In solidarity with Mr.Bajwa, Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader, Sunil Kumar Jakhar, also resigned from his post.
Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed told The Hindu that party president Sonia Gandhi accepted both the resignations. The grounds of the resignations, he said, were “to facilitate further reshuffle in the Punjab Congress.”
“Mr. Bajwa and Mr. Jakhar are very important leaders in our party. They wanted to strengthen the hand of the Congress President [Ms. Gandhi] and let her make the new appointments soon,” Ahmed said.
A senior Congress leader said on Tuesday the high command under the chairmanship of Rahul Gandhi decided to appoint Captain Amrinder Singh as the new chief and asked Mr. Bajwa and Mr. Jakhar to step aside.
“Singh is experienced, popular and comes from a princely background. He has many ways and means to canvass voters,” the leader said. “On the other hand, Bajwa has sound organisational skills but his confidence seems to have taken a battering since Singh started ridiculing him in public,” he added.
Riding high on the defeat of the BJP in Bihar polls, he said, the party high command wanted to keep the “positive momentum going.” “And we expect Singh to tighten the loose ends and steer the party to victory,” he added.
