Cong readies to take on Badals on their home turf Malwa

CHANDIGARH: With a clear domination of leaders from the Malwa region in the organisational changes effected by the Congress high command in the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) today, it is apparent that the party is preparing for a big political battle with the SAD and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the region.

oN A DIPLOMATIC NOTE: Capt Amarinder with Union minister Arun Jaitley, Congress leader Ambika Soni and others while paying tributes to former Speaker of Lok Sabha GV Mavalankar on his birth anniversary in Parliament on Friday. Tribune Photo: Mukesh Aggarwal

Sarbjit Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 27

With a clear domination of leaders from the Malwa region in the organisational changes effected by the Congress high command in the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) today, it is apparent that the party is preparing for a big political battle with the SAD and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the region.

Traditionally, Malwa has remained a stronghold of Akalis and is the home turf of the Badals. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the AAP did exceedingly well in this region by winning Sangrur, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala seats besides giving a tough fight in the Ludhiana and Ropar constituencies.

Of the total 117 Vidhan Sabha constituencies, 67 fall in the Malwa region. To reach to the seat of power in the Punjab Secretariat, it is a must to do well in the Malwa region for any political party.

Of the changes effected today, only Ambika Soni, chairman of the campaign committee, is from the Doaba region. PPCC’s new president Amarinder Singh, senior vice-president Lal Singh, campaign committee vice-chairman Sadhu Singh Dharmsot and convener Ravneet Singh Bittu are all from the Malwa region. Besides them, president of the All India Youth Congress Amarinder Singh Warring is also from this region. However, Punjab Youth Congress president Amarpreet Lali is from the Doaba region.

No leader has so far been given a crucial position in the party from the Majha region, where the party had done well in the last Assembly elections. The high command will have to undertake another balancing act so as to give due representation to leaders from Majha and Doaba in the party hierarchy.

Another major apparent flaw in the latest rejig is the absence of any representation to the trader community in the top echelons of the party. Electoral history of the state is a witness to the fact that urban areas have remained strength of the Congress over the years.

However in the list of names announced today, there is no representation to the Bania community in the top set-up of the party. In the last Assembly elections, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal had outsmarted the Congress by giving a good number of tickets to members of the Bania community in cities such as Mansa, Sangrur, Bathinda, Faridkot and Moga.

Infighting has remained a big problem for the Congress in the state so far. It has been divided into a number of camps. Will the changes effected today mark the end of infighting? That is the moot question. To be fighting-fit, it is a must for top party leaders to work in unison.

Asked in this regard, former Deputy Speaker Bir Devinder Singh said, “With the appointment of Amarinder Singh as the PPCC president, the end of the misrule of the Badal family was on cards.