Crisis in Punjab Congress deepens

LUDHIANA: The on-going crisis in Punjab unit of Congress that erupted after the re-constitution of PPCC last month today further deepened as more leaders resigned from their party posts.

They include former ministers Rakesh Pandey, Malkit Singh Birmi and Ashok Prashar Pappi, party sources said.

Pappi contested as a Congress candidate from Ludhiana (south) in the last assembly elections.

All the three senior leaders, who are members of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC), announced their resignations from the party posts in a meeting held here.

They have decided not to accept any position for not getting "due reward" in the list of new office bearers announced recently by the state Congress president Pratap Singh Bajwa.

Raising a banner of revolt, these leaders claimed that they had been "ignored and humiliated".

In a resolution passed in the meeting, the Congress workers demanded that present list should be withdrawn immediately and a new list of working committee members should be announced, sources said.

The meeting was presided over by Rakesh Pandey, a sitting MLA and a former minister.

They have also given an ultimatum to the Bajwa to release a new list of office bearers by January 19 next otherwise they would start a chain hunger strike in the city here.

Yesterday, ten senior Congress leaders from Moga district had also publicly opposed the new committee.