Chandigarh, April 13
To check the deepening crisis within the Punjab Congress, the party high command has summoned a meeting of the coordination committee in Delhi on April 15. In charge of Punjab Affairs Margaret Alva has indicated that the meeting has been summoned at the instance of AICC president Sonia Gandhi to patch up differences between PPCC president Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Indications from the Amarinder camp suggest that Capt Amarinder Singh may not be present at the Punjab Bhawan in Delhi on April 15 for the meeting. He has already rejected the coordination committee objecting to its composition. The Bhattal camp say that rejection of the committee amounts to defying the party high command. Amarinder has said he does not want to have anything to do with Bhattal because “she has got mixed up with the Akalis”.

Incidentally, both Bhattal and Amarinder will be sharing a stage at Talwandi Saboo for the political conference being held on the occasion of Baisakhi tomorrow. Even though the Punjab government (SAD-BJP alliance) will hold its own stage, it is keen to see what happens on the Congress platform rather than show keenness in what transpires on the SAD-BJP stage.

What started as Amarinder accusing Bhattal of ignoring party cadres and hobnobbing with the Akalis, has snowballed into a virtual polarisation within the Congress. Amarinder claims that the coordination committee does not have a fair representation as it has members from only 5 of the 20 districts. Bhattal on the other hand has said Amarinder has failed to provide leadership to the workers, as he is hardly ever available.

Amarinder Singh made a public statement last month, after a cricket match between Badal XI and Bhattal XI at Mohali, that Bhattal had compromised the position of the Congress by entering into an alliance with the Akalis to get bailed out of corruption cases against her. Bhattal brought his utterances to the notice of the party high command forcing Alva and other senior leaders to appeal to Punjab leaders not to raise such issues outside the party platform.

Sources close to Amarinder say that the former Chief Minister is very adamant in his stand and has decided to fight it out with Bhattal. “I have differences with Bhattal on her political functioning and we cannot work together,” he has reportedly told the party high command.

It is learnt that Amarinder was asked by the party high command to work for the party along with Bhattal. But he refused saying, “I will spend most of my time fighting Bhattal rather than doing something positive”.

He has suggested to Alva to enforce the one-person-one post rule in Punjab and asked the party leadership to remove Bhattal from both posts of party president and leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP).