‘Mistakes were made in Punjab’: Sonia Gandhi at state Congress MPs’ meet

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 16

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was in for some hard talk at an internal meeting she held with party’s Punjab MPs on Wednesday to assess their thoughts on the recent election debacle.

MPs from both Houses, except Ambika Soni and Mohammad Sadiq, attended the meeting at the Parliament House Complex. Sources said the 45-minute meeting was stormy with MPs conveying to Sonia that leaders perceived to be assets turned out to be liabilities in Punjab.

Ambika Soni, Mohammad Sadiq give stormy meet a miss

• MPs from both Houses, except Ambika Soni and Mohammad Sadiq, attended the meeting at the Parliament House Complex.
• Sources said the 45-minute meeting was stormy with MPs conveying to Sonia that leaders perceived to be assets turned out to be liabilities in Punjab.

The MPs questioned the party’s decision to play the caste card by projecting a Scheduled Caste leader Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM replacing Capt Amarinder Singh and said it proved counter-productive. They blamed “infighting and indiscipline” for the party’s loss flagging Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu’s frequent public attacks on Channi.

The MPs said party affairs in the state should be handed over to genuine Congress men and indiscipline discouraged strongly.

“Mistakes were made in Punjab,” Sonia is learnt to have said at the meeting.

In the presence of Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, the wife of Capt Amarinder Singh, Sonia reiterated that Singh should have been replaced earlier and also made light of suggestions by some MPs to “take Amarinder back.”

The MPs questioned the role of AICC general secretary Harish Rawat; AICC incharge of the state Harish Chaudhary who replaced Rawat; Sidhu, Channi and Punjab Congress campaign incharge Sunil Jakhar in the state.

Many said Jakhar’s claim of receiving the highest, 42 MLA votes, in the race for replacement of Amarinder as CM, alienated Hindu votes and harmed the party.

Importantly, Sonia, who listened patiently for most part, is said to have snubbed allegations by some MPs that Chaudhary resorted to corruption in ticket distribution and defended the process of candidate nomination.

Speaking to The Tribune after the meeting, Punjab Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo said, “We told the Congress president that the leaders perceived to be assets actually proved to be liabilities. We told Sonia that the tsunami in Punjab was not for Arvind Kejriwal. It was against our government and against the mafia the government patronised. People vented their anger at us.”

Maken to assess Cong poll debacle

New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi appointed five senior leaders to assess the causes behind electoral losses in Punjab and suggest post-poll remedial measures, including organisational changes. Rajasthan AICC general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken has been tasked with the job in Punjab, Jairam Ramesh in Manipur, AICC general secretary, Jharkhand, Avinash Pande in Uttarakhand, AICC in-charge, J&K, Rajni Patil in Goa and Jitendra Singh in UP. tns