AICC ducks Amarinder Singh's bouncers but expects flare up in Punjab Congress

A cautious AICC on Thursday avoided any tit-for-tat response to former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh's frontal attack on the PPCC and AICC leadership. Senior AICC functionaries desisted from locking horns with Singh and Congress fielded a relatively junior spokesperson to say Singh, an elderly leader, may have got angry and said many things and hoped he would reconsider his words and personal attacks.

The AICC, however, is expecting flare up in the faction-ridden Punjab Congress after the expansion of the Charanjit Singh Channi ministry - after Amarinder loyalists are dropped and at least some ministerial aspirants among 'current loyalists' are not accommodated.

Responding to media queries, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: "He is probably my father's age. Elderly often get angry, and in anger, they say many things. We respect his age, anger and experience and we hope he would reconsider his words as there is no place in politics for anger and personal attacks. We hope he will now show maturity and reconsider his words as he has been a warrior of the Congress and the party has made him the CM for nine years and nine months."


Singh responded by saying: "Yes, there's no space for anger in politics. But is there space for humiliation and insult in a grand old party like the Congress party? If a senior party leader like me can be treated like this, I wonder what the workers must go through."