A year before the assembly elections scheduled to be held in Punjab, fissures have started to open up in the state unit of Congress. Amid rising discontentment among the party members and fearing they could jump the ship, just like West Bengal where TMC leaders and their mass exodus to BJP crippled the ruling party — Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has gone into a course correction mode.
Reported by TFI, since the appointment of Prashant Kishor as the principal adviser to the CM, Congress party leaders have been disgruntled. The resentment has only brewed further after news reports emerged insinuating that Kishor had planned to cut the tickets of at least 30 sitting MLAs and change seats of a few of them.
Read more: After destroying TMC, Prashant Kishor has already started digging Punjab Congress’ grave
Sensing the situation was spiralling out of control, Amarinder Singh had to come out to douse the situation. Releasing an official statement, dismissing Kishor’s hand in the electoral process, Singh remarked, “There is no question of it. Kishor has no say in the matter.”
“There are set norms and patterns for ticket allocation in the Congress, which are followed in all elections in all states,” the chief minister said, adding that Punjab was no exception.
“There is a state election committee set up by the high command ahead of any Assembly poll, which considers all the names and decides on the final candidates, he pointed out, adding that the shortlisted names are then sent for scrutiny to the Screening Committee, comprising top party leadership, including the Congress president. The final decision is taken by the Central Election Committee, with no individual having any role to play” added the CM.
Amarinder Singh further said that this system had worked well last time when Congress won 80 seats in Punjab. “Why should the party want to change it and disturb the political balance that we have managed to strike so beautifully in the past four years?”
Amarinder finished his statement by posing a counter-question to the media, “So where does Kishor come into the picture?”
Punjab CM’s flurry of statements shows the panic amongst the top brass of the state government. The defection of popular TMC leaders like Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee and Dinesh Trivedi before the West Bengal Assembly polls due to incessant trouble created by Kishor forced the Punjab CM to take the pre-emptive step.
“TMC is not run by Mamata Banerjee anymore, but by Abhishek Banerjee (Mamata’s nephew), poll strategist Prashant Kishor and people like Derek O’Brien”, BJP leader Dinesh Trivedi had remarked after dramatically announcing his resignation from the Rajya Sabha earlier this year in February.
Punjab is one of the few political turfs left in the country where Congress has a chance of challenging the BJP in upcoming assembly polls. However, if miffed party leaders decide to switch flanks one by one, it could pose a gargantuan problem for the party high command and Amarinder wants to avoid such a situation at all costs. Thus, his statements are intended to soothe the nerves of the fidgety party members and restore some parity.