Bajwa hints at action against Capt

Our Correspondent

Hoshiarpur, April 16

The war of words raging between two Congress stalwarts of the state —PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh — reached a new height with the former today blaming the latter for causing upheavals in the party rank and file.

In a clear reference to Capt Amarinder (without taking his name), Bajwa said, “There is no problem in the Congress. It is only a particular person who is causing turbulence in the party by his actions. He was doing so even when Rajinder Kaur Bhattal was the president.”

Asked about the action to be taken by the party leadership, he said, “The party high command is watching him and soon he will be dealt with for it. Very soon, everyone will know that he has been taken care of for his indiscipline. The person creating indiscipline in the party will be seriously dealt with.”

Defending AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who remained in news throughout the day following his return to Delhi after two months, Bajwa said, “It is everybody’s right to spare some moments for his own self so that one may get prepared for a bigger and better fight.”

Continuing to take a divergent stand from Amarinder on Rahul’s leadership issue, he said, “He (Rahul) is our young and dynamic leader and he is capable of facing the challenges before the party and the nation. Rahul knows the ground realities and the problems of the poor, farmers, farm workers and the common man. We expect him to shoulder the bigger responsibility now.”

“But, I am no one to say anything about it because choosing a persons to lead the party is a prerogative of the Congress president and the working committee,” he said.

About the demand to bring Priyanka Gandhi to the fore, he said, “It is an internal matter of the family and I do not want to say anything about it.”

Commenting on the Dhuri defeat, Bajwa said, “It was an unequal contest with Congress on one hand and the entire government machinery on the other. Votes were purchased for Rs 2,000-3,000 each. Development works were carried out in the constituency while the electoral process was on. It was an open violation of the Model Code of Conduct and the administration was fully supporting the ruling alliance.”

He termed former Congress MLA Arvind Khanna as a sleuth of Sukhbir Badal in the Congress. “He was sent in the Congress by the Badals to damage the party and that’s what he has done,” he added.