CHANDIGARH: The Harcharan Singh Brar camp has decided to approach the party high command for a change in president ship of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. Shortly after taking over as Congress president, Sita Ram Kesari had asked Ambika Soni to look after the PPCC. It was expected that some other leader would be formally appointed president of the state unit of the Congress, However, the party high command had not taken any initiative in that direction and Ambika Soni had started functioning fulltime as the state party chief. Sources close to Brar say that with the party heading for a crucial Assembly election in less than four months, the state unit of the party requires a person who can take the strain and lead the party to victory. They point out that Soni had no roots in the state and had never won any election from the state. Although Soni has started touring districts but Brar supporters have been conspicuously missing during her meetings. In fact, an impression is gaining ground that she too is pandering to dissidents. To counter Soni, Brar too has \become active and is addressing rallies in districts. The party high command had been dillydallying over a regular appointment because most of senior leaders have backed out, and the appointment of any controversial leader may spark off further division in the party. When contacted, the Chief Minister said that the state unit of the party required a leader who could lead a hectic campaign for the Assembly elections in the days to come. He, however, said that he himself was not keen to take on the dual responsibility and declined to comment on the continuation of Soni as the state party chief. In reply to a question, Brar said that though it was early to comment, the main criteria for selecting candidates for elections would be their ability to win. Asked whether it would mean that over 50 percent of the sitting party MLA’s may not find a party ticket, he said that the percentage of party MLA’s getting tickets could be more than that. Brar said that the possibility of holding elections to municipal corporations in the state appeared bleak before the Assembly elections. He pointed out that a writ petition regarding the corporation election was pending in the High Court.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 30, 1996