Bajwa remains Punjab Congress chief till he enjoys confidence of party leadership: Ahmed

Chandigarh: Amid talks about Partap Singh Bajwa’s replacement as Punjab Congress Chief, AICC General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed on Thursday said he will continue to be the president of PPCC till he enjoys the confidence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi. [caption id=“attachment_2150559” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress General Secretary Shakeel Ahmad. AFP[/caption] “There is no confusion. Partap Singh Bajwa is president of Punjab Congress. He will continue to be the president till he enjoys the confidence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi,” Ahmed said in Chandigarh. However, he said, “Changes do take place in any organisation.” Ahmed was asked to clear air about the confusion surrounding the leadership of Punjab Congress. Notably, senior Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh has been seeking removal of Bajwa and he had understood to have sought removal of the state unit chief from Sonia Gandhi in the January this year. Amid talks of Bajwa’s replacement, the name of Congress MLA Lal Singh was doing the rounds as the next PPCC Chief. However, in a recent reshuffling of Pradesh Congress Committees announced by Congress, Punjab did not figure in that list. Asked about Amarinder demanding Bajwa’s removal, Ahmed said, “Captain Amarinder Singh is a senior leader and party’s deputy leader in Lok Sabha and he had remained Chief Minister of Punjab. He had conveyed his views and party leadership is seized of his views. Everyone has the right to express his or her views,” he said. However, Ahmed said that he never heard Amarinder saying that he (Amarinder) would not accept the decision of party leadership. When asked to comment on taking disciplinary action against Amarinder for his alleged statements violating party’s discipline, Ahmed said, “if he (Amarinder) makes any such statement, then the party’s disciplinary committee headed by AK Antony will take a note of it. However, no such notice has been taken so far.” When pressed further on “leadership crisis” in Punjab, the AICC General Secretary said that Congress cadre was mature enough. “However, even if there is any confusion in media, then it should not be there,” he noted. Asked to comment on audio clip in which Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal allegedly trying to poach six Congress MLAs, Ahmed, who was in-charge of party affairs in Delhi at that time, said that Congress MLAs did not break away from the party despite Kejriwal’s best efforts. “Our MLAs were pressurised and offered ministerial and chairman posts. But I want to thank them that they continued to remain loyal with the party,” he said. Ahmed was here in connection with the party’s initiative of holding 5-day-long dialogue session with MLA’s, district presidents and other leaders in Punjab to take their feedback on various issues including party’s core ideology, organizational structure etc. He said 35 Congress MLAs attended the session on Thursday. “We received mixed response over type of organization structure. Some said there should be elections but some said there should be nominations. A few said that till a certain level, elections should be held and thereafter, there should be consensus,” he said. Punjab Congress also accused SAD of victimising its elected members of municipal councils in Chamkaur Sahib and Morinda by registering “false” police cases against them. PTI