The issue of maintaining unity in the state unit of the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections dominated the Punjab Coordination Committee meeting here on Monday,with AICC general secretary in charge of Punjab Mohsina Kidwai warning action against those indulging in factionalism and internecine fights. The partys Punjab campaign committee chairman and former chief minister,Capt Amarinder Singh,supported her stance saying that leaders should put the past behind and put up a united fight in the Lok Sabha elections. According to PCC chief Mohinder Singh Kaypee,the state units proposal to field Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat was not discussed at Mondays meeting. The Punjab Congress as also the Amritsar district congress committee had earlier passed a resolution requesting the PM to contest from Amritsar. I and the CLP leader (Rajinder Kaur Bhattal) had called on him a few weeks back to convey the sentiments of the state Congress. The PM told us that he would see when the time came. The issue rests there, Kaypee told The Indian Express. Senior party leader Manish Tewari was said to have advocated strong and coordinated campaign by the party against the Akali Dal,which holds a monopoly over the cable network. He also suggested that the party should build up a dossier of the violence perpetrated by the Akali Dal against Congress workers. Kidwai warned leaders not to use public platforms to settle scores against one another ,according to sources present at the meeting. Only last month Bhattal had publicly protestedagainst Amarinders decision to hold a rally on her home turf Sangrur. Her differences with Amarinder,have been taken up at the highest level of the party several times,but to no avail. The high commands decision to appoint the former CM chairman of the campaign committee has also not gone down well with Bhattal,who was divested of her post as PCC chief some time back.
