Two contrasting Union ministers from same region,each under a cloud

As a mass leader,Pawan Kumar Bansal,64,has a record unmatched at home he has won the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat three successive times. Bansal,railway minister now under a cloud,is also said to be firmly in control of the Congresss affairs in Chandigarh,from nominating election candidates to deciding who should be mayor,besides enjoying clout at the Centre. He is known to be close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Until the arrest of his nephew Vijay Singla,who had allegedly taken a bribe promising to influence a key Railway Board appointment,Bansal enjoyed a largely clean image as a national leader,though his name did come up in a couple of controversies at local level.

Bansal,born in Punjabs Sangrur district,won the Chandigarh seat in 1999,2004 and 2009 and used every victory to strengthen his position in Chandigarh and at the Centre. He was the minister of state for finance from 2006 to 2009,as well as the minister of state for parliamentary affairs. In the current Lok Sabha,he has been minister for parliamentary affairs and water resources,and later put in charge of earth sciences and science amp; technology,before being made railway minister.

The last appointment made him not only the first railway minister from the Congress in years,but also the first from the northern region in three decades. His railway budget ushered in the reforms the government had long been wanting to introduce,apart from bringing the region a number of new trains and projects.

In Chandigarh,the partys unit has seen no other major leader emerge for years. He visits the city on weekends to meet residents,take note of their problems and attend programmes. During elections,his sons and his nephews campaign for him,a closed group that has caused some discontent among Congress leaders,though they would rarely oppose Bansal in public.

Of the two previous controversies he has been linked to,one involved the allotment of land for a Delhi Public School in 2002. A public interest litigation filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by an advocate,Sudeep Mahajan,named Bansal as well as Ambika Soni; it alleged that rules were amended to facilitate the allotment to their Heritage Education Society at Rs 90 lakh against the market price of Rs 50 crore. The final hearing is pending.

In 2010,Bansals name cropped up in an inquiry report,prepared by Chandigarhs then additional deputy commissioner,on alleged irregularities in booth allotments. Bansal gave a statement in Parliament clarifying his position; subsequent inquiries by the UT administration cleared his name.

Bansal was involved in a widely reported standoff with then UT Administrator Gen retired S F Rodrigues in 2008. A number of projects Rodrigues had proposed for the city a film city,an amusement park and Medicity were scrapped one after the other after they got embroiled in corruption investigations and Bansal opposed them.

Born in July 1948,Bansal went to Yadvindra Public School in Patiala,Government College in Chandigarh and Panjab University,from where he graduated in law. He began from student politics,as general secretary of PUs student council,and became general secretary of the Chandigarh Territorial Youth Congress in 1976,and president of Punjab Youth Congress in 1982.

His first stint in Parliament was as a Rajya Sabha member in 1984. He lost two Lok Sabha elections,in 1996 and 1998,before the string of victories.

Ashwani Kumar,man without a mass base in Gurdaspur

Sukhdeep Kaur

In Punjabs border district of Gurdaspur,Ashwani Kumar is seen as a one-election wonder who rose through the corridors of power in spite of not enjoying a mass base.

An exchange between Kumar and then Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh in 2012 illustrates how party leaders at home view the former. Kumar blamed the state leadership for the assembly poll defeat; Amarinder hit back by calling him a rootless wonder who lobbies for ministerial berths sitting in Delhi.

Law Minister Kumar,59,facing calls for his resignation after he allegedly vetted the CBI report on the coal block allocations probe,has contested only one general election,and lost heavily. He had been fielded from the Lok Sabha seat of Gurdaspur in 1996 by the Congress Tiwari,the breakaway group of Arjun Singh,N D Tiwari and Natwar Singh that later merged with the Congress.

Kumars father,Prabodh Chandra,was in contrast a leader of tall stature. He is remembered in Gurdaspur as a freedom fighter who was tortured by the British with pins under his nails. He later went on to become an MLA,the assembly speaker and an MP; his stint as speaker is remembered for his resignation following differences with then chief minister Partap Singh Kairon.

The son,a Supreme Court advocate,is said to be close to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh; his aides say this goes back to the fathers closeness with the latters family. Kumar is also said to have been mentored by the late Arjun Singh.

Since the 1996 defeat,the Congress has fielded and sent Kumar to the Rajya Sabha three times,in 2002,2004 and 2010. In 2006,he was made minister of state in the department of industrial policy and promotion in the Ministry of Commerce amp; Industry. In January 2011,he became minister of state for planning,parliamentary affairs,science amp; technology and earth sciences. He was relieved of his charge of parliamentary affairs within six months; the law portfolio came with the October 2012 reshuffle.

Within the party,he had started as the secretary of the Gurdaspur District Congress Committee in 1976,then aged 23,after passing out from St Stephens College in Delhi and doing an M Phil. His rapid rise started in 1986,when he was appointed organising secretary in the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee. In 1990,he was made additional solicitor general. In 1998,he was appointed to the AICC media committee; in 1999,he was made AICC spokesman.

During those years,he forged strong ties with the media and was vocal on several issues,which is believed to have helped him secure the Rajya Sabha nominations. His rivals find him indiscreet,someone who looks to hog the media limelight. He has a dedicated website that lists the political positions he has held,his achievements,and even functions where he has been invited as chief guest.

Within the Punjab Congress,however,he has no friends. Leaders call him politically inert yet most vocal. Apart from the face-off with Amarinder,he has been involved in exchanges with current state Congress chief Partap Singh Bajwa too. Bajwa,the Gurdaspur MP,had accused Ashwani of trying to sabotage his prospects in the 2009 elections.

As a Congress MLA puts it,neither his rise nor his fall would matter in Punjab.