The Hindu : Standoff continues in Punjab Congress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 13, 2003

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National

Standoff continues in Punjab Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 12. The crisis in the Punjab Congress continued today with the dissidents going ahead with their campaign for a change of leadership even as there were indications that the party's central leadership was not willing to concede to the same.

After adopting an aggressive posture that nothing less than replacing the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, would be acceptable, the dissident leader, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, declared that as "loyal Congress members" the group would abide by the decision of the central leadership.

It is understood that the central leadership did not like the language, which smacked of threat, used by Ms. Bhattal on Thursday.

This was conveyed to Ms. Bhattal. She also had a round of meeting with members of the All-India Congress Committee, including the general secretary, Mohsina Kidwai, in charge of the party affairs in the State.

The current effort was to ensure that both factions arrived at an understanding without disturbing the present arrangement.

At the same time, the Chief Minister has been told in categorical terms that he had to bring about a change in his style of functioning and redress the genuine grievances of the legislators.

The AICC spokesperson, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, said that while the party legislators from Punjab were discussing their problems with the central leadership, there was "no indication of change of leadership."

Ms. Bhattal has been insisting that she had the support of 34 MLAs, including 14 Ministers.

On his part, the Chief Minister too claimed that he had more numbers. However, there is a view that the effort only showed that Captain Amarinder Singh represented a faction and not the whole legislature party, as was the case earlier.

Meanwhile, there were reports that the AICC is working on a plan whereby leaders of both factions would sit across the table and sort out their differences.

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