PPCC rebels hold meeting

PATIALA, July 27: Much significance is being attached to the Congress workers' meeting held here at the residence of All India Congress C...

PATIALA, July 27: Much significance is being attached to the Congress workers8217; meeting held here at the residence of All India Congress Committee member and former minister Brahm Mohindra on Sunday, which turned out to be an all dissidents8217; show.

Mohindra said messages were sent by word of mouth to party workers in the city to participate in the meeting on Friday night and Saturday morning and the objective of organising the meeting was to galvanise and mobilise partymen for the ensuing parliamentary elections. He added that partymen at the meeting pledged to work for the success of any candidate fielded from Patiala by the party high command.

However, observers point out that it was an attempt by dissident Congress leaders to mobilise partymen in their favour. The meeting was attended, among others, by former Rajya Sabha MP Surinder Singla, former PPCC chief Mohinder Singh Gill, PPCC general secretary Bir Devinder Singh, former MLA Brij Lal Goyal, PPCC organising secretary Prem Gupta, PPCC Backward Classes cell chairman Lakhwinder Singh and senior leaders of the district Congress Santokh Singh and Nirmal Singh Bhattian.

Three of the dissident leaders who attended the meeting are aspirants for the party ticket from Patiala while another leader, Sant Ram Singla, who has also applied for the party ticket from Patiala, conveyed his inability to make it to the meeting. Though it was described by the organisers as a party workers8217; meeting, a senior functionary of the DCC Urban, when contacted, said the DCC was not taken into confidence in this matter.

He said it could at best be described as a personal get-together of the organisers. Observers say it was not by chance that none of the office-bearers of the Pradesh Congress or the district Congress, belonging to the rival faction, were invited to the meeting. They said that leaders of rival faction were deliberately left out as the organisers wanted to make it a show of strength.

Incidentally, Brahm Mohindra8217;s residence is located right opposite to the New Moti Bagh Palace, the residence of PCC chief Amarinder Singh.

Meanwhile, following a fiat from the party high command, no Congress leader is issuing any statement about the goings-on in the party. Show-cause notices were earlier issued to Bir Devinder Singh, Prem Gupta, Brij Lal Goyal and Dr Satwant Singh Mohi for issuing press statements that the state leadership felt were against the interests of the party.