The Hindu : Amarinder ignored party's interests: Bhattal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 22, 2003

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Amarinder ignored party's interests: Bhattal

Chandigarh Dec. 21. Virtually ignoring the Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh's call for reconciliation, the dissident Congress leader, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, today maintained a tough posture against him and expressed the hope that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, would take a decision on the leadership issue ``in the party's interests''.

``Mr. Amarinder had always ignored the interests of the party... There are differences between us on implementation of basic policies of the party,'' Ms. Bhattal, who is also the State's Agriculture Minister, told PTI here.

``On several occasions he (Amarinder) took vital decisions at his own level even ignoring the Congress high command,'' she said. ``We may be liking SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) as a party, but we are opposed to SAD's policies.''

Ms. Bhattal said even in the graft case against her, ``he (Amarinder) did not even bother to consult the High Command... After all, I am the deputy in the Chief Minister's Cabinet.''

She said that after hearing the grievances, the Congress chief had appreciated ``our areas of differences with Mr. Amarinder''.

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