NEW DELHI: Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president Virendra Kataria is likely to be removed from his post as party president Narasimha Rao has decided to give Chief Minister Harcharan Singh Brar a free hand in running the state.
According to AICC sources, the high command has assured Brar of full support against the dissidents, During his recent visit, here, Brar had met party president P.V. Narasimha Rao as well as other senior Congress leaders, including pani treasurer Sitaram Kesri, CWC member Jitendra Prasad a and AICC general secretary BP, Maurya.
Sources disclose that a decision regarding the new PCC chief will follow after the fate of the Vajpayee Government is decided.
Having obtained the high command’s clearance, Brar is expected to take a tough line against the dissidents. The suspension from the party of former minister of state Jagmohan Singh Kang, who was spearheading the dissident activity, is meant to serve as a warning w the rest.
According to sources, Brar has apprised the high command that corruption during, the Beant Singh regime, police highhandedness and confusion created by Kataria were the main causes of the Congress debacle in the state.
‘The poor response to Rao’s Ludhiana rally and the fact that the former chief minister’s widow could not even lead in the Payal assembly segment in which Beant Singh’s native village is located have been cited as cases in point.
‘The dissidents backed by some Punjab MPs had convinced the high command that the sympathy wave in favor of Beant would win the day for the Congress.
The high command appears to be quite convinced that Kataria has mishandled party affairs and is not the man to have around at the helm during the elections. Kataria, who made it to the Rajya Sabha courtesy Balram Jakhbar, has not even been an MLA. His appointment as PCC chief had, therefore, come as a big surprise. – Verify the recovered files: Once the recovery process is finished, navigate to the chosen recovery recover files from sata hard drive location to verify that the recovered files are accessible and intact.
Those sympathetic to him are of the view that he was not a very ambitious man but allowed himself to be used by the dissidents. Kataria has also fallen apart with his mentor, Jakhar. The letter has accused him of being instrumental in his son’s electoral defeat.
Ironically, although Kataria was appointed to curb dissidence he has ended up fanning it.
‘The dissidents had assumed that with his ‘appointment Brar had been distanced from ‘command, accordingly, thermal? Tied around Kataria and further mounted their campaign to dislodge Brar, {Sources disclose that Brar has informed the high command that the scenario is not as grim for the Congress in Punjab as the Lok Sabha results would indicate, | He has pointed out that the Congress hag Ted in 38 Assembly segments and lost by, a wafer-thin margin in another 20. Brar feels that a refurbished party machinery ‘and a clean government for another eight months would enable the Congress to take the fight back into the Akali camp during the state Assembly elections in February.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 29, 1996
