NEW DELHI: The Punjab Pradesh Congress (I) Committee which was “elected” after farcical Contests late last month has been packed with close relatives of senior leaders and established procedures were flouted with impunity during the organizational elections.

Some of those “elected” to the PPC (I) are not even primary members of the party while certain others do not hail from the areas from where they are supposed to have been elected.

Ironically even the returning officers were not aware of the “elected” members from certain areas till their names were announced at Chandigarh

Partisan and factional considerations evidently played a major role in the constitution of the 164 member PCC (I) which has brought the party’s unit in the state to the verge of a spit on the eve of elections.

The union agriculture minister Balram Jakhar who hails from Punjab but has been contesting elections from Rajasthan was made the observer of the organizational elections. Besides making himself an AICC (I) member from Punjab he got his son nephew and a brother-in-law inducted in the PCC (I). His son was even elected to the executive of the committee.

A former home Minister Buta Singh got himself inducted to the AICC (I) from Punjab his nephew as joint secretary and one of his cousins Gurdev Singh as a member of the PCC (I). Reportedly his two other relatives are also in the committee.

A former Punjab minister S. SRandhawa was instrumental in getting three persons hailing from Gurdaspur district elected from Patiala Sangrur and Hoshiarpur districts ignoring the claim of local leaders He is also reported to have helped his daughter-in-laws father inducted in the committee from Faridkot district

H.S.Brar and his wile G.K.Brar got AICC (I) and executive membership despite the fact that they had not enrolled any primary membership as required under the Party constitution

Among other leaders H.S.Brar was instrumental in getting his son elected to the PCC (I) despite a case pending against him. R.K.Bhattal was herself elected a general secretary and her brother as a member of the committee. Both yash and his wife were declared elected to the PCC (I) from Jalandhar ignoring the claims of several other senior leaders from the district.

Master Kundan Singh inaugurated the office of an Akali candidate in the previous elections and had worked actively for him has been nominated to the AICC (I) while Ram Krishan Kataria who was an independent candidate in the cancelled elections was made a member of the scrutiny committee” of the PCC (I). Jai Muni a former MLA from Gurdaspur has been made a PCC (I) member from Hazipor in Hoshiarpur district evidently in an effort to accommodate another leader in the committee.

While several members inducted into the PCC (I) have remained in a state of liberation ever since the start of the troubled days in Punjab many who had been making attempts to keep the party afloat have been ignored. Some of them had submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister here recently. They had been marked the memorandum with their blood to express the agony and dismay at being side-lined The memorandum among others was signed by a former general secretary of the PCC (I) Jagmeet Singh Brar former MLAs Bir Devinder Singh Brahma Mohindra Gurdev Singh Bakshiwala and Surinder al Singh Majithaand former MPs including Kamal Chosdhary Hakim Singh Ram Partap Garg and a former chief of the Punjab Youth Congress (I) Pratap Singh Bajwa.

The memorandum referred to the: “grave irregularities” in the conduct of the organizational elections and said that the constitution of the general house of the PPCC (I) is vitiated to the core”. It said there was “gross violation of the mandatory revisions of the party’s Constitution” and “in the history of the Punjab Congress such gross and blatant misuse of political authority against party colleagues is more unprecedented”.

The memorandum cautioned that if things are not set right “this sorry state of affairs would have its inevitable adverse consequences on the prospects of the party candidates in the proposed elections.

Describing it as “conspiracy of the worst kind in the annals of Punjab Congress” the memorandum said that the organizational elections were manipulated to suit certain leaders.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 24, 1992