Capt remains off dais as Bajwa, Jakhar take over

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 19

Former Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh was the most conspicuous absentee alongside Delhi ex-CM Sheila Dikshit in the list of leaders who addressed farmers at the Congress’ anti-land ordinance rally here today.

Capt’s confidante Sunil Jakhar, Punjab Congress Legislature Party chief, filled in for him but that didn’t stop the party leaders from wondering if Capt and Dikshit were kept off the dais because they recently endorsed the continuation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in a way speaking against the elevation of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the party chief.

These questions were also rooted in the fact that two former CMs — Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana) and Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) — spoke at the rally, while Capt stayed away from the dais and was seated in an enclosure meant for the Congress Working Committee members, general secretaries, Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma among others.

Representing the Punjab Congress (which today arranged 20,000 visitors) on the dais was state Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa and Jakhar. Bajwa, faced with a massive rebellion mounted against him by Capt’s men, spoke in chaste Punjabi energising the crowd with the famous Bhagat Singh quote: “Pagdi sambhal jatta”.

“It is time to stand up for your honour,” Bajwa said. Though Jakhar spoke immediately after Bajwa, he refrained from making political remarks that would give away hints of the ongoing rivalry in the Punjab Congress.