By Vishal Gulati
Chandigarh, Feb 12 (IANS) After an eight-day-long Bharat Jodo Yatra through Punjab led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the party leadership in the state seems to be back on their toes with enthused cadres to convey the message of unity at the block level by starting the “Join Hands” campaign.
After the mass exodus of leaders, comprising loyal and veteran lawmakers, and the sudden rise of the BJP in the state, the weakened Congress, which had faced a humiliating ouster at the hands of the greenhorn Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in last year’s Assembly polls, is struggling for revival in the state.
Congress watchers feel the Bharat Jodo Yatra has energized the cadres that had been demoralized after the assembly elections’ rout and the mass exodus of their leaders. The yatra will usher in a change, a party leader told IANS.
“You will soon see the results in the municipal elections. The assembly polls are far off. By the parliamentary elections (2024), you will see the revved up leadership and the cadres down to the grassroots,” added the leader.
The eight-day Punjab leg of Rahul’s yatra passed through five out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats of Punjab — Fatehgarh Sahib, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur.
A day ahead of embarking on the foot march in Punjab, Rahul paid obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Braving the biting cold, several top functionaries of the state Congress, comprising former chief minister Charanjit Channi, party state president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring and Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, extensively participated in the yatra with a message “the yatra is not for the Congress alone, but for the country”.
Donning a red turban and his trademark white half-sleeves T-shirt, Rahul Gandhi participated in the Punjab leg of the yatra from Sirhind on January 11 after paying obeisance at the historical gurdwara in Fatehgarh Sahib. The gurdwara is dedicated to the martyrdom of the two younger sons of tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, who were bricked up alive by the Mughals.
On January 14, the yatra was discontinued after the demise of Congress MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary who died while walking during the yatra. The next day it resumed after Rahul and the Congress leadership attended the cremation of Chaudhary, the mass Dalit leader.
The Punjab leg of the yatra, probably the most extensively covered state after Kerala, culminated with a rally in Pathankot on January 19, before it proceeded to Jammu and Kashmir.
A day ahead of the last leg, Rahul’s yatra entered Himachal Pradesh and after a night halt it returned to Punjab. He had also taken a break on January 13 in view of the Lohri festival.
Apart from interacting with intellectuals, farmers, ex-servicemen, arhtiyas, researchers and MNREGA labourers, the father of the late Sidhu Moosewala, Balkaur Singh, former AAP MP Dharamvira Gandhi and historian S Irfan Habib joined Rahul in the yatra that got an overwhelming response across the state.
Navjot Kaur Sidhu, the wife of former state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, walked along Gandhi during the march. Navjot Singh Sidhu is currently lodged in Patiala central prison in a 1988 road rage death case.
Describing the Bharat Jodo Yatra a grand success in Punjab, state party chief Warring said the yatra got a huge response. “Despite biting cold, people came out in large numbers to welcome Rahul Gandhi.”
Leader of Opposition Bajwa said the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s massive rally in Pathankot proved that the country is with Rahul Gandhi. “The future of the country will be in the right hands.”
Former Member of Parliament Bajwa courted controversy at the Pathankot rally by referring to former prime minister Manmohan Singh as fake and a “proxy” PM who had “caused harm” to the people. Later, the party distanced itself from the comment.
At the rally in Pathankot, Bajwa said, “Rahul-ji, you have to be the PM candidate. There should be no proxy. Proxy rule has damaged us.”
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has slammed Bajwa by saying it was an insult to the former prime minister and hurt the sentiments of the Sikh community as well as the Punjabis at large.
As Rahul took to the streets in the state, Punjab’s former Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal parted ways with the Congress after raking up allegations of factionalism and joined the BJP.
Sharing a letter he has written to Rahul Gandhi, two-time finance minister Manpreet said “a coterie of leaders based in the national capital was running party affairs in the state and it had given rise to factionalism.”
Before Manpreet, scores of Congress leaders, comprising two-time chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, former state unit chief Sunil Jakhar, former ministers Balbir Singh Sidhu, Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi, Raj Kumar Verka and Gurpreet Singh Kangar and former legislators Kewal Singh Dhillon and Harjot Kamal, had switched loyalties to the BJP.
In the latest case of rebellion, Lok Sabha MP from Patiala, Preneet Kaur, hit back at the Congress for its show-cause notice to her for alleged anti-party activities.
Preneet Kaur is the wife of Capt Amarinder Singh. She is a four-time MP from Patiala.
In her letter addressed to the Congress disciplinary action committee’s member-secretary Tariq Anwar, she said: “At the onset I am surprised to see that a person who left the Congress party in 1999 on the issue of Sonia Gandhi being a foreign national, and stayed out for 20 years till 2019, and had to face disciplinary action himself, is now questioning me on a so-called disciplinary matter.”
Talking about the Punjab leaders, she said: “The Congressmen in Punjab who have made allegations against me are those who have many issues pending against them.
“If you call my husband (Amarinder Singh), who was then Chief Minister, he will give you details about their doings. He protected them because they were from his own party. However, I suppose you will not do that.”
Kaur ended the letter by saying, “As to action against me, you are free to take whatever action you wish.”
In a legislative House of 117, the Congress, which won 77 seats in 2017, managed to win only 18 in March 2022 with most of its stalwart faces like former Chief Minister Charanjit Channi and then state party chief Navjot Singh Sidhu facing humiliating defeats in their strongholds.
The BJP, which had won three seats in 2017 when it had contested in alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), secured only two seats this time, while the SAD won four and the others won one.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
–IANS
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