SHIMLA HIMACHAL PRADESH: Congresses reluctant to involve Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh in the party’s election campaign  notwithstanding his strong desire to play a key role in the Assembly elections for the State, Beant Singh, no is also the observer for Himachal is unlikely to get a red carpet welcome from state Congress leaders,

Punjab Chief Minister, who arrived here on Oct.19 for addressing workers meetings and finalizing Congress campaign strategy returned the end of last week, cutting short his tour,

Although PCC resident, Virbhadra Singh maintained that Beant Singh had to cancel his tour due to some family tragedy, the insiders say Punjab Chief Minister was advised so by the state Congressmen.

Beant Singh’s stand on “Maha punjab” is raising apprehensions about possible losses to the Congress despite his clarification that he was not in favor of “Mahapunjab” and his remarks sometime back were in a “different” context But BJP has been vigorously using Beant Singh’s Statement against the Congress,

Earlier Janata Dal leader Ranjit Singh, had also cautioned the Congress against involving Beant Singh and All India Youth Congress president Maninderjit Singh Bittain the campaign, “This will create tension and lead to violence in Himachal” he claimed.

Beant Singh’s role in the distribution of the party tickets has already caused serious resentment among Congressmen, especially Virbhadra Singh camp. He had managed to get ticket for his PRO O.P.Rattan, ignoring the name of former MLA Virbhader Gautam from UN a constituency. Gautam has filed his nominations from the same constituency as Congress rebel to take revenge.

“Beant Singh charged fee,” says an aggrieved ticket aspirant. The Punjab Chief Minister also got Kush Parmar, son of first Himachal Chief Minister U.S, Parmar shifted to Nahan. Parmar was a potential candidate from Paonta.

Virbhadra Singh camp claims that Beant Singh, who had a major say in the allotment of the tickets did not oppose fielding of the “weak” candidates, AS a result, there was 4 revolt in the party besides apprehensions of serious setbacks to the party’s overall prospects.

Denial of party tickets to former ministers like Sagar Chand Nayyar from Chamba, Nathpa Singh from Dharampur, Thakut Singh from Barmaur, allotment of ticket to Vijay Joshi from Sant oksh garand shifting of Kewal Singh Pathania from Nurpur to pave the way for Senior party leader Sar Mahajan had also annoyed Virbhadra Singh. The decision of the Pradesh Election Committee to authorize Pame Minister P.V Narasimha Rao was also maneuvered by Beant Singh. The Virbhadra Singh camp feels that if the election committee had prepared its own panel, there would not have been much scope for the observer or senior Central leaders to have their Sayin the list. “Everyone tried to poke his nose in Himachal affairs” resents a senior PCC leader. ‘The Congress traders claim that whatever had been done could be balanced by an effective campaign strategy. To begin with, the POC resident issued an appeal asking all unofficial party candidates to withdraw from the fray and support official candidates, Secondly, feeling threatened, Congress plans to keep Beant Singh out of active campaigning to avoid any controversy of Maha Punjab” issue, “We will not give any opportunity to BIP to exploit the issue, although Beant Singh had clarified his position when head dressed the Youth Congress rally at Kaltu last month” says a Congress leader.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 29, 1993