Congress Legislators Want Captain Amarinder Singh As State Party Chief

The raging debate over leadership of the party in the state has taken a new turn as Rahul Gandhi met over a dozen of party legislators in Punjab to seek views on a possible change of guard in the state.
 
The majority of legislators and MLAs who met Rahul one-on-one conceded that the tug of war between former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and state president Partap Singh Bajwa could impact the party’s prospects ahead of the 2017 polls.

There appeared a wide consensus within the party that Amarinder Singh must be made to lead the party in the state as the current state chief, Partap Singh Bajwa, could not emerge as a force to stand up to either the Akali Dal-BJP combine or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that has surfaced as strong political force in the state.

However, the party is concerned over the ongoing delay by the leadership in tackling the issue. It’s especially worrying since a similar situation in Assam where the party had witnessed an internal revolt against CM Tarun Gogoi but its lackluster attitude had forced many leaders to make an exit, which included former minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who recently joined the BJP.

This is not the first time that the party has convened together on the issue of leadership. Rahul had met the legislators back in February this year and is lined up for another round of talks with them on Oct 12.

The members of the Congress in the state are anxious over the growing factionalism within the party, skeptical that it may hand over undue advantage to the opposing parties. Their biggest threat comes from AAP which could eat into their support base as had happened in Delhi and become the next ‘viable alternative’ the Akali-BJP collaboration.