New Delhi, December 19
Wary of annoying the party’s central leadership, Punjab Congress dissidents abandoned their earlier plans of hanging about Delhi for the next few days and quietly left for Punjab today.
Sources said the central leadership had told the dissidents in no uncertain terms that they should return to Punjab as “work was suffering.”
The issue also figured at a meeting of Congress MPs from Punjab with Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Ahmed Patel today. According to sources, the two leaders told the MPs that the ministers who did not follow party discipline could face the axe. The strength of ministry in Punjab has to be brought down from 26 to 18 in the next six months as per a law enacted by Parliament.
The MPs were told that Congress President Sonia Gandhi would take a decision on the leadership issue after the winter session of Parliament.
With Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh having got some “breathing space,” his loyalists have started mending fences with the dissidents. Rana G.S. Sodhi, the Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, and three other MLAs today met Ms Sukhbans Kaur Bhinder over lunch.
Mr Sodhi said they discussed ways to “restore harmony” in the Congress Legislature Party. He said there was no dispute now as both the groups had conveyed their views to the party’s central leadership and left the decision to Ms Gandhi. Mr Sodhi said the Chief Minister would meet all the MLAs and ministers to address their grievances.
Keen to forestall attempts to reduce their numbers, the dissidents
have
decided to organise regular lunches and dinners. A dinner has been planned at Ms Rajinder Kaur Bhattal’s residence tomorrow in Chandigarh, sources said. When contacted, Ms Bhinder said most of the dissident MLAs and ministers had returned to Punjab. She said legislators had conveyed their views and were satisfied with the response of the party’s central leadership.
Meanwhile, Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann today alleged that the BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal headed by Mr Parkash Singh Badal were trying to pull down the Congress government in the state.
Mr Mann, however, said majority of Congress government was in doubt and the Chief Minister should prove his majority in the Assembly. He said there was no precedent of headcount being done outside the Assembly.
