Bajwa here to stay: Ahmed

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, December 9

AICC general secretary and Punjab affairs in charge Shakeel Ahmed scotched speculation that PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa may be removed after the Delhi elections.

He said the AICC saw no reason to do so despite repeated requests from senior leaders to effect a change in the top echelons of the state Congress. Former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and some other senior leaders, including a section of MLAs, had been asking the AICC to change the state Congress president.

Voices to remove Bajwa had become shriller after he lost the Gurdaspur Lok Sabha seat while Capt Amarinder Singh won from Amritsar.

Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Congress membership drive, organised by Anil Vij, Pathankot District Congress Committee president, Ahmed said although it was the prerogative of AICC chief Sonia Gandhi to make top-level changes, currently the party saw “no logic or reason to do so”.

Ahmed’s statement gives a free hand to Bajwa to re-organise the state Congress.