Following the recent war of words in Delhi, the rift between I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now come to the fore in the state of Punjab. The divide is not only between Congress and AAP over the alliance but within the Congress party as well.
Leader of Opposition in Punjab, veteran leader Partap Singh Bajwa, while addressing a party event in the state, said that Congress members in Punjab do not accept the alliance. Bajwa said, “Congress ke log, ye jo nayi jamaat aayi hai inka chehra dekhne ko raazi nahi hain … Reluctant friendship jo hoti hai, reluctant shaadi jab aap karwate ho toh woh reluctant shaadi dono parivaron ko phir nuksaan pahuncha deti hai. Hamare log aise anti-Punjab jamaaten ke saath koi dur dur ka rishta nahi rakhna chaahte (Congressmen are not willing to see the faces of leaders of this new party … When there is a reluctant friendship, when you solemnise a reluctant marriage, it harms both the families. Our party workers do not want to be even remotely associated with people who are anti-Punjab).”
Bajwa was addressing a Youth Congress programme on Thursday (24th August) in the presence of Youth Congress chief BV Srinivas. Bajwa asked him to convey his views to the Congress leadership in Delhi. Bajwa also equated Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to Adolf Hitler in his speech. He said Mann and the AAP leadership will be subjected to “special trials for the excesses they were committing” and said, “We will arrange to finish the termites (when in power).”
Earlier, on the 10th of August, Partap Singh Bajwa had announced that the Congress party is set to independently contest all 13 Lok Sabha seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. He highlighted that there won’t be any collaboration with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is its alliance partner in I.N.D.I.A. alliance.
Earlier in June, when talks about the Opposition alliance were ongoing, Bajwa had expressed his reservations to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring reportedly said that he had conveyed the state unit’s views to the Gandhis and was hopeful that they would be considered.
However, state Congress leaders reportedly agree that the larger cause is to keep the BJP out of power. Yet they feel that an alliance with the AAP in Punjab will pose challenges.
Congress MLA from Bholath, Sukhpal Singh Khaira said that the alliance does not hold much water in Punjab where the BJP is “irrelevant”. “The INDIA alliance is to stop the BJP from coming to power. But the BJP cadre in Punjab is irrelevant. The BJP cannot win a single seat here. So, there is no point in having an alliance. So, where is the threat to I.N.D.I.A. in this state?” Khaira asked.
He added that allying with the AAP would go against the party cadre as workers are against the “vindictive policies” Mann has implemented in the last 18 months in the state.
A close confidante of former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, former Congress MLA Rajinder Singh said that the party will not be able to mobilise its cadre because of the “vendetta” against its leaders. A senior party leader also said that the alliance was not possible as CM Mann had used humiliating language for them in the Assembly.
Punjab is not the first state to see friction between the two alliance partners. Earlier, on 17th August, Congress leader from Delhi, Alka Lamba, had claimed that the party would fight all seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi. Her claim was backed by leader Sandeep Dikshit who called AAP “a party of fools”.
