JALANDHAR: Challenging the tradition of having a Jat Sikh chief minister in Punjab, former Punjab Pradesh Congress Committtee (PPCC) president Shamsher Singh Dullo now wants his ‘secular’ party to play the Dalit and Hindu card. He has demanded that the “principle of rotation” should be implemented in Punjab instead of traditionally choosing a Jat for the CM’s post.
“This time, a Congress leader from Hindu, Scheduled Caste (SC) or backward class (BC) community should be given a chance to become CM, if the Congress comes to power,” said Dullo. This comes at a time when PPCC president Captain Amarinder Singh is being projected as CM by several senior Congress leaders at Congress rallies.
Dullo has also demanded more tickets for Hindus, SC and BC communities. “These sections have been Congress vote banks and they should be given due share in ticket distribution to keep them with the party, when the political wind is blowing in favour of Congress,” said Dullo, himself an SC leader, at a media interaction convened on Saturday. He revealed that he had even written to the Congress high command about it. On why he left out Sikhs from his calculations, Dullo replied, “Only poor Jat Sikhs have been voting for the Congress in the last 40 years, while rich Jats had been supporting SAD.”
“The Congress has applied the principle of rotation when zeroing in on the chief ministerial candidate in order to give representation to all communities in other states, now the same principle should be applied in Punjab. A leader from the Hindu, SC or BC community should be given a chance to become CM,” Dullo said. “These communities along with Christian and Muslim minorities have not been given a chance and leaders of only one community have been becoming CM. All sections should get a chance and not just one caste or community,” he said.
“SCs make for 39% of the total population in the state and even according to the revised delimitation they have not got due reservation as per their share of population. SCs should be given at least 45 seats (more than the reserved seats) and an equal number (45) should be given to Hindus and BCs as per their population share,” said the former PPCC president. He held that one community had been getting 50-60% share of the party tickets, much above its population share, thereby implying that the share of tickets for Jats, who have otherwise been dominating the party and state politics, should be decreased.
“In the 2007 election, the Congress gave lesser number of tickets to Hindus and we lost in the cities due to this reason. I even raised my voice and wrote to the party high command about it. I hope that we don’t repeat our mistake of 2007. The party realized these mistakes only after the election results then,” said Dullo, who has opposing Captain within the Congress.
Dullo also demanded representation for SCs and BCs in the Punjab election committee of the party.
When Sachdeva spoke up
In the last week of August, district Congress committee leader Kamal Sachdeva was first suspended, slapped with a show cause notice and then expelled from the party for speaking on communal lines. He had raised similar issues which Dullo raised on Saturday. Asked if his articulation was not on communal lines and against the secular credentials of party, Dullo retorted that Congress was a secular party and it should give rightful representation to all communities. Now it remains to be seen if parameters of disciplinary action would be the same for a former PPCC president as they were for Sachdeva.
News Source: Times of India
