Chandigarh, September 22
Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh has changed his schedule in Chandigarh to incorporate an hour-long meeting with Congress men of Punjab at the Party office in Sector 15 here on Saturday. The meeting with more than 500 Congressmen will be attended by block and district level functionaries, the Punjab Chief Minister, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief, other office-bearers besides Cabinet Ministers and MLAs.

In another change to his schedule, the Prime Minister will also meet the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir at a tea party hosted by the Punjab Chief Minister at Punjab Bhawan in Sector 3. The changes in the Prime Minister’s schedule were issued tonight.

He will become the first Prime Minister to visit the Congress party office where Congress functionaries are busy discussing the strategy for the Assembly elections due less than an year and half away. The PPCC chief, Mr Shamsher Singh Dullo is also hosting a lunch for the Prime Minister with the party workers. The lunch has been named “Priti Bhoj”.

The change in schedule is to send the “right political signals” in Punjab, said a senior Congress leader. Under the new schedule issued today, Dr Mamohan Singh will have more public interface rather than be bound by bureaucratic functions and formalities.

Sources in the government said the change has been carried out keeping in mind the aspirations of Congress men. Earlier, the Congress men were viewing the visit of the Prime Minister as a visit to selected functions where the elected representatives would have struggled to put forward even a small point to him. It was being seen more of a visit to Chandigarh and not to Punjab. The request to alter the schedule was made to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) which was accepted and a fresh schedule was issued this evening.