Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leader Rahul Gandhi, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders were seen at the opposition meet, in Bengaluru on July 17, 2023. (Pic/PTI)
During a meeting of senior state Congress leaders in Chandigarh on Wednesday, the issue of ‘vendetta politics’ allegedly unleashed by the AAP government against them was raised
With the Congress forging an alliance with 25 other parties including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), the party’s Punjab unit finds itself in a quandary over the tie-up with the senior state leadership upset over the move as it is in direct confrontation with the Bhagwant Mann government.
The formation of a joint front has miffed the senior Congress leadership, which is planning to take up the issue again with the party high command.
A meeting of senior state Congress leaders was held in Chandigarh on Wednesday in which many of them yet again raised the “vendetta politics” which they claimed had been unleashed by the AAP government against them. The meeting resolved to again meet the central leadership to seek “clarity” on the level of “understanding” between the Congress and AAP in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
“Opposing the BJP’s ordinance on central service rules is fine but we want to make it clear to the party high command that anything beyond it is not acceptable. The AAP government has been going after our senior leaders, booking them under false cases, and on the other hand, a large tie-up with the party at the central level doesn’t augur well for the state unit. We need more clarification from the high command,’’ commented a senior party leader.
Besides Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, leader of the opposition Partap Bajwa, former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Randhawa and other senior leaders attended the meeting. It was decided that the PPCC chief and leader of opposition would meet central leaders on the issue. “There was wider consensus on opposing any alliance with AAP beyond supporting it on the central ordinance,” a leader said.
Warring said the fight against AAP over political vendetta against Congress leaders would continue. Bajwa alleged, “Former deputy CM OP Soni, despite being a patient, was being given inhuman treatment by vigilance officials. There is law and procedure to handle investigations.”
State leaders, angry at the party’s “handshake” with AAP at the national level lamented that it would have consequences at the state level. “The high command has to realise that AAP in Punjab is trying to decimate the Congress by targeting its leadership and that is something that the central leaders need to take cognisance of,” commented a senior leader who was also at the meeting.
