Congress brass conducts survey to assess top Punjab leaders’ popularity

The Congress high command has conducted a survey to assess the popularity of its top Punjab leaders in the run-up to the Assembly elections next year.

The survey report, reportedly shared with the party’s top brass, coincides with Rahul Gandhi’s MGNREGA Bachao Sangram rally at Barnala tomorrow.

This is likely to prepare the ground for assigning key organisational roles to senior party leaders.

The exercise to assign roles to the leaders is expected to begin next month, amid mounting pressure on warring party factions to put up a united show ahead of the polls. According to sources, a close aide of Rahul got the survey conducted to evaluate the standing of Punjab unit president Amrinder Raja Warring, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa, former CM Charanjit Singh Channi and Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Randhawa.

The survey was conducted in parts of the state.

A senior leader said while the party would launch its election campaign at the rally, it wanted to remind all top leaders to bury their differences. Earlier, All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal had said the party would contest the elections without a CM face.

A source said the top four leaders would receive Rahul at the Bathinda airport.

Rahul’s visit comes ahead of the BJP’s March 14 “Badlav Rally” in Moga, which will be addressed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

Ruling AAP had sounded its poll bugle on February 16, with party national convener Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann addressing an anti-drug rally at Killi Chahlan village in Moga.