Punjab Congress MP Dharamvira Gandhi opposes party leadership over 'halqa in-charge' culture

In fresh fissures within the Punjab Congress, its Patiala MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi on Tuesday took a sharp jibe at the party’s state leadership over the appointment of certain leaders as halqa in-charges.

“What is and who is this halqa in-charge in the Congress party? They are the candidates who could not make it to the Vidhan Sabha. Some even lost their deposits. By the way, who appointed them as halqa in-charges? Name the leader and make their appointment orders public,” Dr Gandhi said in a post shared on Facebook.

He expressed displeasure over recent party events in the eight Vidhan Sabha constituencies of Patiala district, where the so-called halqa in-charges reportedly took charge, while young Congress leaders and workers were sidelined.

Sources within the Congress said that certain senior leaders had conducted events under the Sangathan Sirjan programme, aimed at appointing new district Congress presidents through All India Congress Committee (AICC) representatives. However, these events saw “self-styled” halqa in-charges occupying the front rows, leaving many local leaders and workers feeling excluded.

“This mischief has simply been done to snub and sabotage the ascendency to leading positions of local, young, and more dedicated leadership, and nothing else,” Dr Gandhi said.

He added that the halqa in-charge culture is not in consonance with the organisational principles and values of the Congress.

“Through this halqa in-charge culture, you have destroyed the leadership potential of dozens of politically promising young men and women, and deeply buried the political aspirations of two generations of youth. If things continue this way, only the unfortunate third generation will be next in line,” said the two-time MP.

He further said that the continuation of this halqa in-charge practice, along with the repeated allocation of posts, positions, powers, and tickets (four to five times in some cases) to a selected few—and later to their wards—amounts to a crime against the youth, the Congress party, and the future leaders of the country.