M A I N   N E W S

Amarinder’s PS quits
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 30
Mr Harchand Singh Barsat, political secretary to the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, has resigned. Mr Barsat, who is a long-time political associate of Capt Amarinder Singh, has also returned his official vehicle to the government. He has been one of the staunchest loyalists of Capt Amarinder Singh for two decades.

The Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) had tried in the past to lure him but he did not budge.

Mr Barsat confirmed his resignation, but declined to comment on the issue. However, sources said that Mr Barsat had submitted his resignation in protest for political and official reasons. “He was not happy over the way he was treated by all concerned in the recent past”, said a close associate of Mr Barsat.

He has been a trade union leader and has a good following among employees of various departments in Punjab. He had organised a rally in Patiala in February. Senior Congress leaders had gone all out to sabotage that rally addressed by Capt Amarinder Singh and other senior Ministers. At the rally, a number of commitments were made to employees which have not been fully honoured so far.

The employees, who took part in that rally, had been urging Mr Barsat time and again to get the promises fulfilled or quit the job accepting moral responsibility. The sources said most of the employees, including teachers, who took part in the Patiala rally held a demonstration in Bathinda yesterday. Following this development, Mr Barsat decided to resign, it is learnt. The close associate of Mr Barsat said that two Ministers in particular had been trying to clip the wings of Mr Barsat.

The sources said Mr Barsat was a strong contender for the party ticket from Anandpur Sahib in the coming Assembly elections. However, in view of political events in the past four weeks, his chances of getting the party ticket from there appeared to be remote. “As his political future has come to a dead-end, he was left with no option except to resign”, said a trade union leader who had been watching the political interests of Mr Barsat in Ropar district.

In 1991, Mr Barsat was a candidate from the Samana constituency of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Panthic), a party floated by Capt Amarinder Singh. He had filed his nomination papers after quitting his government job. In 2002, he did not get the party ticket from the Congress for the Samana segment. However, to compensate him, he was made the political secretary, considered an important assignment, to the Chief Minister. However, in the coming Assembly elections, he seems to have no chance of getting the party ticket from Samana also.