PPCC chief: Rahul Gandhi’s youth nominees rejected by top leaders

By Vinay Sharma

CHANDIGARH: Senior leaders of the Punjab Congress have resented party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s proposal to introduce his choices as Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president, following which the decisions on the new PPCC chief was put on hold.

A compromise formula could be a combination of senior and a youth leader. However, a similar experiment of inducting Ashok Tanwar in the Haryana PCC back fired during the state assembly elections, as Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp never accepted Tanwar as its leader.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel proposed the names of Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu, Ferozepur MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra and Gidderbaha MLA Amarinder Singh Raja for the post of PCC chief, at the behest of Rahul Gandhi. The three are known to be Gandhi’s favourites.

Patel personally reached out to senior leaders Amarinder Singh, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa.

However, all three opposed the choices. None of them have commented on the issue.