CHANDIGARH: In an effort to balance caste equations, the Congress high command is all set to assign key roles to non-Jat leaders while revamping the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC). The move comes in the wake of reports that the Akalis are trying to poach on Hindu and OBC leaders “neglected” by the Punjab Congress.
Significantly, Lal Singh, an OBC leader who is chairman of the Punjab Mandi Board, has been repeatedly called to New Delhi by Rahul Gandhi in the past couple of days. He is said to be close to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had assigned responsibilities to the veteran leader during the recent civic polls. Owing to the “one family, one ticket” rule, Lal Singh had to give up his claim to the party ticket during the 2017 elections and his son Rajinder Singh was elected from Samana constituency. “With a 32 per cent vote share, the OBCs will play an important role in the coming Punjab polls,” a senior PPCC leader pointed out.
Apart from Lal Singh, Punjab ministers Brahm Mohindra, Sunder Sham Arora, Vijay Inder Singla and Balbir Sidhu, Rajya Sabha MP Shamsher Singh Dullo and MLAs Rana Gurjeet and Lakhvir Lakha met Rahul Gandhi on Friday. Capt Sandeep Sandhu, political secretary to the CM, is also learnt to have met the former Congress chief close on the heels of PPCC chief Sunil Jakhar attacking the CM’s “so-called advisers” for the “wrong” decisions, including jobs for MLAs’ kin. “I told Rahul Gandhi that the CM and the state Congress office have been in a lockdown for about four years.The Congress has been weakened in Punjab because of the growing dominance of ‘outsiders’ while traditional loyalists are sidelined,” Dullo said.