M A I N   N E W S

Amarinder, Bhattal leave it to Sonia
Anita Katyal and Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17
The crisis in the Punjab Congress today moved towards solution with the dissident camp and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh leaving it to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to take a final decision on the former’s demand for a leadership change.

Emerging from separate lengthy meetings with Ms Gandhi late tonight, the dissidents’ representative, Agriculture Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, and Chief Minister Amarinder Singh reiterated that they had conveyed their views to the Congress President and that her decision would be acceptable to them.

Instead of insisting that they would not leave Delhi till the Chief Minister was removed, the dissidents today decided to leave the final decision on leadership change to Ms Sonia Gandhi.

Appearing subdued and mellow, at one point even referring to her battle with the Chief Minister as a “bhai-behen ka jhagda”, Ms Bhattal also changed tack on her earlier public ultimatum that they would not leave Delhi till Capt Amarinder Singh was removed.

“What we meant was that we would wait for the party high command’s final decision,” Ms Bhattal maintained tonight. When pointed out that no decision had been taken, she further retracted, stating that they were actually waiting to convey their views to the Congress President. She said while other legislators might return to Chandigarh soon, she would be staying in the Capital for a while. A Chandigarh court is expected to frame charges against her in an ongoing embezzlement case tomorrow.

It is learnt that the dissidents have been assured that their legitimate grievances would eventually be addressed, but not under pressure.

On the other hand, Capt Amarinder Singh may well be asked to change his style of functioning and become more accessible to his ministerial colleagues and party functionaries.

It was clear that the Punjab problem was in the final stages when representatives from both the warring camps were called for consultations with Ms Gandhi since she had made it known that she would not meet anybody till they arrived at some solution.

The Chief Minister was hurriedly called back from Chandigarh for consultations tonight. At the same time, the dissident camp was represented by Ms Bhattal. Former ministers R. L. Bhatia and Sukbhans Kaur were also asked to meet Ms Gandhi late tonight.

Earlier during the day, Ms Bhattal and Ms Bhinder held several rounds of discussions with senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and Ahmed Patel in a bid to evolve “face-saving” formula which would satisfy all sections.

Both the dissidents and the Congress Central leadership had softened their positions today. The dissidents, who publicly declared they would not leave Delhi till the Chief Minister was removed, looked suitably chastened today. While some privately maintained they had no intention of pressurising the party leadership, others said they would return to Chandigarh without waiting for the final decision on leadership change.

At the same time, Congress central leaders also indicated a shift in their stand on this simmering issue. From its earlier “no leadership change” mantra, a party insider today maintained that “everything is open, including the leadership issue. We can’t say with certainty whether the Chief Minister will stay or go.”