PPCC leadership dispute will be resolved after Delhi rally: Ahmad

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 17

Terming the ongoing war of words between PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa and Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh as "unfortunate", Congress national general secretary and Punjab affairs in charge Shakeel Ahmad today said the high command would sort out the leadership dispute after April 19. 

Ahmad said the outbursts were unwarranted at a time when the party was preparing for the April 19 rally in Delhi. "The matter is in the notice of the high command and the final decision to sort it out will be taken after the rally," Ahmad told The Tribune. 

Capt Amarinder today questioned Bajwa's locus standi on the issue of disciplinary action against him. 

 "This is viciously wishful thinking of someone, who knows his countdown has begun, to divert public attention from his own repeated failures. This is Bajwa's desperate bid to bully down all those MLAs and leaders who are publicly seeking his removal," he said. 

Taking a jibe at Bajwa for saying there was nothing wrong in the party, the former Chief Minister said, "There is nothing indeed wrong in the party as long as you are heading it even if the party continues to lose one election after another… things go wrong only the moment someone questions you." "Since he took over, the party has seen a progressive decline in Punjab with no hope of revival as long as he remains at the helm," he said.

Bajwa hit back, claiming Amarinder "deliberately, calculatedly and consciously sabotaged the party's prospects in the Dhuri Assembly bypoll, giving the impression through his actions and statements that the party was divided". "I had not taken any name in the media, to which Capt has reacted in this vicious style of his. This amounts to admission of his disruptive activities to harm the party repeatedly," said Bajwa.