Elections over, ‘infighting’ in Punjab Congress to the fore again

Deepkamal Kaur

Jalandhar, June 5

The Lok Sabha elections are over and so is “peace” within the Congress. As former minister Vijay Inder Singla lost from the Anandpur Sahib seat by 10,846 votes, Kapurthala MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh, who was a claimant to the ticket for himself or his MLA son Rana Inder Partap, has said in a video interview that had he been in Singla’s place, he would have won the seat with a margin of over 1 lakh votes.

Rana Gurjeet has also been maintaining: “Despite two strong waves in the Khadoor Sahib elections — one because of Hindu vote consolidation for the BJP and the second created by supporters of Independent candidate Amritpal Singh, who won by a record margin of 1.97 lakh votes, I still ensured a lead of 5,000 votes for Congress candidate Kulbir Singh from my Kapurthala Assembly segment.” In the video, he said it was shot a day before the counting took place.

Like Rana Gurjeet Singh, former minister and Jalandhar Cantonment MLA Pargat Singh, too, was a claimant for the party ticket from the same seat. He had also shown his keenness in contesting from the Ludhiana LS seat from where the party later fielded PCC chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring. After Warring’s win, Pargat’s supporters have started demanding that since Warring would now be busy with politics at the Centre, the party top post should go to another suitable leader.

Even as Pargat could not get the ticket, his success in the Lok Sabha elections lies in the fact that he was instrumental in bringing Dr Dharamvira Gandhi into the Congress fold and getting him elected from Patiala. He was also among the two main Congress leaders to push the case for former Chief Minister Charanjit Channi’s candidature from Jalandhar.

However, those in favour of Warring have been maintaining that removal of the PCC chief at this stage would be an insult to him, especially since he was successful in the party’s mission to trounce “traitor” Ravneet Singh Bittu. They also say that since under his leadership, the party had won seven of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, there was no reason to dislodge him at this stage.

Pargat supporters want PCC chief replaced

• After Raja Warring’s win in Ludhiana, Pargat Singh’s supporters have started demanding that since the PCC chief would now be busy dealing with the politics at the Centre, the party top post should go to another suitable leader
• Even as Pargat could not get the ticket for himself, his success in the LS poll lies in the fact that he was instrumental in bringing Dr Dharamvira Gandhi into the Congress fold and getting him elected from the Patiala constituency
• The former hockey Olympian was among the two main Congress leaders to push the case for former Chief Minister Charanjit Channi’s candidature from the Jalandhar seat