Before Bajwa was picked,Amarinder told Sonia he had terror links

The letter,written before Bajwa replaced Singh as the state Congress chief in March,exhorted Sonia not to hand over the reins of the party to Bajwa.

Sonia,however,went ahead and appointed Bajwa as PCC chief. But Bajwas authority was undermined soon as he was saddled with four vice-presidents appointed at the behest of Rahul Gandhi.

While Amarinder Singh was not available for comment,his close associates in the party confirmed he wrote the letter to Sonia and also its contents. Reached for comment,Bajwa denied any knowledge of Singhs letter and refused to comment on it.

There are 120 people making 120 allegations against me. I will respond to any of them only if somebody comes out in the open and levels any allegation against me publicly. I am not aware of any letter to Mrs Gandhi and therefore,there is no question of reacting to it, Bajwa told The Sunday Express.

The Punjab PCC chief,who has been given Z category security cover by the Union home ministry,however,dismissed suggestions of having had links with terrorists. His father Satnam Singh Bajwa,a former minister,had been killed by terrorists,he added.

It is not the first time a Punjab Congress leader has been targeted with such allegations by party colleagues. As CM,Amarinder had himself come under a veiled attack from the late Arjun Singh,who had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April 2006 alleging that Khalistani supporters were being given protection in the state.

Congress sources in Delhi played down the allegations and said the leadership knows which allegations have to be taken seriously.